This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2018)
Type of video game console
TheOuya is an inexpensive microconsole based onAndroid.
Amicroconsole is ahome video game console that is typically powered by low-cost computing hardware, making the console lower-priced compared to other home consoles on the market. The majority of microconsoles, with a few exceptions such as thePlayStation TV andOnLive Game System, areAndroid-baseddigital media players that are bundled withgamepads and marketed as gaming devices. Such microconsoles can be connected to the television to play video games downloaded from anapplication store such asGoogle Play.
TheiQue Player connected to the television and enabled downloading of games at home as early as 2004.
TheiQue Player was released in 2003 as a low-cost handheld TV game console based on theNintendo 64, specifically designed for theChinese market. At launch, games were available for download from iQue Depot kiosks. In October 2004, the iQue@Home application store was introduced, allowing users to download games from home,[1] potentially making it the first microconsole of its kind.
In the early 2010s, shortly after the rise ofmobile gaming on smartphones and tablet devices from 2008, microconsoles started to gain traction in the global market. These units were seen as a means to marry the idea ofhome video game consoles with smartphone and tablet gaming, taking advantage of the large library of games already available for theAndroid operating system.[2] While OnLive's MicroConsole brought the name "microconsole" to the field, the term "microconsole" was more widely adapted to describe these units as a whole as it mirrored the concept ofmicrocomputers of the 1970s and 1980s compared tomainframes andminicomputers. Just as microcomputers represented low-cost, less powerful, and smaller form-factor versions of their larger equivalents, microconsoles tend to be similarly available at lower cost using cheaper computation hardware and packaged in smaller systems. In some cases, these packages were small enough to be encased into handheld controllers.[3][4]
In late 2010,cloud gaming startupOnLive released MicroConsole, a television adapter and wirelessgamepad that connects the company'svideo gamestreaming service to televisions.[5]VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi described the device as representing the company founder's "vision to turn the video game industry upside down" as an inexpensive console providing "high-end games on low-end hardware" that could eliminate the cycle of regular consumer hardware upgrades.[6][7] The MicroConsole TV adapter was producedat a loss.[7] OnLive's MicroConsole made the company an early leader in the nascent microconsole field.[8]
Amid a "new war for TV" in theconsumer electronics industry,[9] an inexpensive and simple Android-based video game console designed for televisions calledOuya was announced forcrowdfunding in July 2012. The Ouya was an overnight success and raised $8.5 million.[10][11] Significant interest inlow-cost Android console gaming followed Ouya's success,[12][13][14] spurred by themobile games industry growth.[8][15] The industry began to refer to the resulting consoles as alternative consoles, or microconsoles.[16]
Polygon reported that Android "consoles" were best-in-show at the January 2013Consumer Electronics Show, citing devices like theMOGA Pro,Green Throttle Games Atlas controller,Nvidia Shield, and news ofValve'sSteam Machine, a non-Android console.[17][13][18] Following Ouya's success, other similar set-top Android gaming devices were announced as direct competitors, including theGameStick in early 2013,[19][20][21]GamePop in May 2013,[22] andMad Catz'sMOJO in June 2013.[23]Forbes's Daniel Nye Griffiths referred to Ouya and GameStick's close release dates as the microconsole field's first "showdown".[8] The GamePop and MOJO announcements in the early summer referred to the devices as "microconsoles".[24][25]
ThePlayStation TV (known inAsia as the PlayStation Vita TV) is a microconsole announced in September 2013 at a Sony Computer Entertainment Japan presentation.[26][27][28] It was released in Japan on November 14, 2013 and in North America on October 14, 2014.
Raspberry Pi has become a popular alternative platform for home-made microconsoles due to its low cost and ability to emulateretro gaming consoles.[29] Whilehomebrew software for the Raspberry Pi can be made by anyone, users can install a complete emulation package, such asRetroArch or RetroPie.[30]
Gamasutra called Ouya, GameStick, and GamePop "console alternatives" that represent "a potential new market space for developers".[31] Tadhg Kelly, writing forEdge, called 2013 "the year of the microconsole", citing less consumer need for traditional console power, thelow price of microconsole manufacture, increased system compatibility for easier game development, and more developer freedom from console business interests.[4] Microconsole promises of a less restrictive platform are expected to empowerindependent game developers.[18][32] Kelly referred to the "deliberately small" microconsoles as "thenetbooks of the console world", not intended to compete with big video game consoles.[33] Other reviewers called the microconsoles competitors, though not a threat, and referred to a crowded "non-traditional console space" as a disadvantage.[14] Kelly added that Ouya is heavily focused on the early adopter audience and its interests, and that Ouya's "natural advantage" of price has not been communicated effectively.[33]Edge questioned possibilities of microconsole success due to competition within the field as well as from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft's new consoles.[34]
The pre-release Ouya was panned by early reviewers.[35]The Verge called it unfinished,[36] and in a later review,Eurogamer questioned why consumers would purchase a console that duplicated the functionality of smartphones they already had.[10]
The video game industry sawApple'sApple TV as potential microconsole competition due to the company's experience in the mobile games market.[37][38][33]Polygon reported in January 2013 that the Apple TV "continue[d] to be dangerously close to upending the mobile gaming space" and speculated that an Apple TVApp Store could spark "a rush of games to the television".[17]
