Posted on Monday 23rd Jul 2012 at 1:31 PM UTC

Ouya console 'is the size of a Rubik's Cube'

Hackable Android games console won't measure more than a few inches wide, system designer says

By Rob Crossley for CVG UK

Ouya, the Android-based games console that sparked an investment craze on Kickstarter, is believed will be a small as a Rubik's Cube when the product is finalised.

Ouya Screenshot
Yves Béhar, a lead hardware designer on the Ouya project, said his team has "made a deliberate attempt" to avoid building a console that resembles more classic systems such as the Xbox 360 and PS3.

"Our console is quite small, around the size of a Rubik's cube, and so it will easily fit anywhere in a room, or be easy to throw in a backpack," he said in a live Q&A; published on Kotaku.

The system, built by Fuseproject, is expected to pack a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core ARM processor, as well as 1GB of memory, 8 GB of flash storage and two USB ports.

Béhar said the design of the microsize console will be crucial for its hardware arrangement as well as aesthetics.

"We intend to give the Tegra chipset room to breathe, as obviously it does get warm. Airflow is important here," he said.

Traditionally a Rubik's cube measures 2.2 inches in length, width and depth.

The system's controller is expected to be of similar size to classic controllers such as Xbox 360 and PS3.

At the time of going to press, Ouya Kickstarter crowdfunding project has raised $5.4 million. Fuseproject has pledged to sell the system at $99, and claims the console will be easily hackable.

More than 42,000 people have backed the project with their own cash.

CVG UK
Rob Crossley
Rob Crossley
Associate Editor

Rob has worked in journalism since 2006 across a range of newspapers, magazines and websites. He joined CVG as Associate Editor in May 2012.Read more

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11 comments so far...

  1. Report this post Reply with quote
    c3dpo on 23 Jul '12 said:

    Ouya project, said his team has "made a deliberate attempt" to avoid building a console that resembles more classic systems such as the Xbox 360 and PS3.

    ^
    So we copied the Gamecube instead :p

  2. Report this post Reply with quote
    DAEDALUS79 on 23 Jul '12 said:

    That sounds great but surely not, maybe double that size though 5*5"

  3. Report this post Reply with quote
    Jingee on 23 Jul '12 said:

    Not a whole lot of room for ports then. Least it'll be super-portable.

  4. Report this post Reply with quote
    a_adji on 23 Jul '12 said:

    if it's only doing apps then how big does it need to be? it's basically an answer to mobiles that have no joypads.

    Personally, I dont care for app games as they are shallow and dont hold my attention. I play on the train and I am good.

  5. Report this post Reply with quote
    craiglackenby on 23 Jul '12 said:

    I can't see Ouya selling millions, maybe 1 million. This shouldn't be a problem for devs supporting it as 99% of the games for it will be on Android and iOS anyway, so it's a win win for devs with games releasing on all devices. However if it does only sell around a million then I can't see devs investing in AA titles exclusive to the platform, it won't be worth it imo. As it stands Robert Trolling is the only dev (I'm aware of) to come forward and announce an exclusive for it. So given his background and the amount of publicity that follows him, I reckon his game will do well even if Ouya doesn't sell millions. A lot of people will buy it to get a glimpse of the back story of his new game is which looks quite interesting imo, it's just a shame it's not releasing 'til 2015. I'd eat my hat if it's not on next gen consoles, surely we'll have them by 2015.

  6. Report this post Reply with quote
    BLARRG on 23 Jul '12 said:

    You know why its that small? BECAUSE ITS A BLOODY PHONE IN A BOX!!!! Anyone who buys one or supported it is a f**king idiot.

  7. Report this post Reply with quote
    Cogglesz on 23 Jul '12 said:

    Not a whole lot of room for ports then. Least it'll be super-portable.


    Agreed but i think it should do pretty well, i'd imagine hdmi and perhaps a couple usb ports along with a little 5v power port at the back of it, it'l probably use bluetooth controls probably with usb cables for plugging into the back of it to charge along with the console itself and if there anything like how the ps3 controller works on my android phone then it'l be lagless.

    I'm not sure what potential it has or what its going to be like a couple years after release, it seems a bit like the cloud gaming in the sense that its a new method of gaming, i've got a sort of small arcade like set up at home with my wii where i can play all my emulated games on the one screen in SD and it would be nice to replace that with the Ouya.

  8. Report this post Reply with quote
    TechnoWolf on 23 Jul '12 said:

    Great, an easy to lose, piece of moderately expensive hardware.

  9. Report this post Reply with quote
    FlacidDonkeyGuy on 23 Jul '12 said:

    You know why its that small? BECAUSE ITS A BLOODY PHONE IN A BOX!!!! Anyone who buys one or supported it is a f**king idiot.

    Yes supporting open source programing is for idiots, Linux can go fook it's self :roll:

  10. Report this post Reply with quote
    sh4dow83 on 23 Jul '12 said:

    You know why its that small? BECAUSE ITS A BLOODY PHONE IN A BOX!!!! Anyone who buys one or supported it is a f**king idiot.

    Well... all Nintendo fanboys should heavily disagree with you. Because the price/performance ratio isn't that bad compared to the Wii U.

  11. Report this post Reply with quote
    TomOuyaDB on 26 Jul '12 said:

    So i think this is kinda of the DL right now but OUYA IS HIREING! they need a software engeneer. Check out the article: http://ouyadb.com/2012/07/26/ouya-is-hiring/

    OuyaDB.com brought you this :) so say thanks :)