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Posted By Nobunaga about 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Ouya? OHHH YAAHHH!
“The revolution will be televised” indeed! In an announcement that’s shocked many across the industry, Square Enix and the company that will build the new AndroidOS-based Console “OUYA” have both announced that they will be bringing the “Missing Gem” of the Final Fantasy line to North America exclusively for the OUYA console. Final Fantasy 3 (as it was called in Japan) was only ever released as a revamped 3D title on the Nintendo DS back in 2006, but now gamers that will participate against this “revolution in gaming” will be able to play the exclusive title.
But it won’t be a straight-up port of the classic title. When it arrives on the OUYA, Final Fantasy III will come with up-to-date visuals thanks to the console’s HD capabilities. In addition, the game will include a free demo, giving those new to the franchise a chance to see if they want in on the action. It would normally be mind-blowing to see a company like Square Enix embracing a “Free to Play” or even a “Free to Try” model, but considering Square Enix’s last few years making games for Android and iOS devices, in the end perhaps this move should have been seen coming…
Final Fantasy Games on an Android? It's more likely than you think!
But in the end, this news brings something even greater than another pure and uncorrected Final Fantasy title to our living rooms… it provides the world with a sign that indeed this “Revolution” in gaming will be supported by the industry itself. Square Enix is one of the world’s largest and most well know gaming companies, and to see it throw it’s massive weight behind an indie-developed console that won’t even complete it’s Kickstarter campaign until Aug 9th, is surprising. But certainly not unwelcome. Market analysts are now claiming it’s only a matter of time before others follow Square Enix’s lead… and considering the company’s effect years ago on the number of PS3 sales, I’m going to wager this was the bump the Ouya needed.
Not even a week ago OUYA announced it will also feature the OnLive video game streaming service, essentially meaning you’ll be able to play near any game, from any console, on your OUYA. An indie-built $99 console running the AndroidOS. A console that from a hardware standpoint has the capacity to compete with next-gen consoles, and a feature list rich in what console gamers love… and most importantly (for some), no motion controls. Yet.
You know… when the controller is bigger than the console…
The OUYA is being touted as a very hackable system, in fact many of the Kickstarter backer-perks deal with hardware development kits. I suspect that within a week of launch we’ll see fan creations of devices, Kinects, Moves, WiiMotes and custom designed hardware… and all available for cheap because they’re made by gamers, for gamers. If a company tries to release a product for the console that’s too expensive, another company can simply produce the product for cheaper…
At least, that’s the theory.
As a backer of the Kickstarter project, and a “Former Console Gamer”, I eagerly await the torrent of news regarding the Ouya in the company months… this machine is turning out to be the real deal. It’s broken Kickstarter’s records… but will it break through the industry’s iron-clad defenses and into our homes with all it’s promises intact? Lets hear your thoughts. Is the Revolution coming?
But square sucks now. They have sucked since the ps2 officially became “obsolete”.
At first I thought they were talking about the ‘real’ Final Fantasy 3. But then I remembered Square isn’t going to put that gem on Ouya.
What? The ‘real” Final Fantasy 3? What in Blazblue does that mean? You mean Final Fantasy 6? Right?
You DO know certain Final Fantasy games were not released in the United States therefore the old SNES numbers were made arbitrarily to continue without skipping numbers.
3 on SNES is actually 6.
Please people. Lets keep this STRAIGHT. We have the knowledge now.
Also on FF3 being on this new console, I think it’s great to see a major company like square backing this thing already.
I’ve got high hopes.
They mean the original Sprite version of the game for the Super Famicom. But odds are they’ll be retooling the DS remake for the Ouya system like they did for Android. Odds are the OUYA version will be the Android mobile version adapted to use a controller on a higher resolution.
And on a personal note I don’t see SE porting a game that’s available on several devices at this point as supporting a new platform. Now if they made a completely new IP series solely for OUYA would be a sign of support.
I don’t know, to me it seems like a lot of excitement for very little.
FF3 is already available on Android marketplace so all that Square did is say that an Android game will be available…. on another Android Platform not really something very exciting. I am pretty sure you can also add FF1 and Crystal Defender to the list and that very soon Rockstar will announce that the first Max Payne and GTA3.
I also don’t really understand the part about Square “embracing” the “Free to try” model, they are just releasing a demo, I agree that nowadays demo are not as systematic as they used to be but still it’s hardly something mind blowing, they released demos before both on consoles and on PC, very recently they had a demo for FF13-2 and 9 years ago they had demo for FF7 PC so it’s not like it’s anything new.
Same goes for onlive which is already (or soon will) available on Android; worse, it already has it’s very own, often free, micro-console allowing you to play on TV.
Also onlive is very far from giving you access to “nearly all” console games, it only gives you access to a rather limited selection of PC games. (Also I can’t help but see the irony of having what is supposed to be the most “open” console ever and play on it with onlive the most tightly close gaming service ever.)
Concerning the Ouya itself I am still undecided, on one side it can be a neat geek gadget, cheap, small, easy to tweak, but on the other side it’s basically just phone hardware in a box (minus the touch screen).
Not sure if it will have a market share big enough to allows it to survive for very long, I feel like it will probably end up being the living room cousin of the open pandora.
Squaresoft the first to join OUYA? Dang it I just lost 50 bucks. I could have sworn Metal Gear creator would have been the first. He always loves putting his games onto new consoles that normally fail. Oh well.
Really this makes me glad. If people can view the OUYA as a console then it gives is power. This is really what the Gamecube was meant to be. A small powerful box full of good games. Able to be carried about and packed up easily. The OUYA beats the GC senseless since it has a good dev-kit attached to it. Not only that but a large online library. Which wasn’t around when the GC was released or at lest not popular.
Look at it! So small so easy to be there and exist. its not 50 pounds Xbox. It’s not a Wii that needs a flimsy cord sensor bar. It’s not PS3! It’s small, it has some nice power, and will hopefully developers to learn it and push it. Not to hold its self on graphics that look nice with a lack of backgrounds or feel to the game.
Or people could just make Angry Birds clones, and Tower Defense games. Who knows.
Square also put the first 3 FF games on the Wonderswan. Hideo Kojima wanted to make a MGS game on the N-Gage. This is not the first time people put huge support in something that in all likelihood is just going to be a footnote, or at most an iphone substitute… sans touchscreen or anything that really makes those platforms appealing.
Well actually this port was already available in HD, on tablets. Though I’m not sure on that I know it was in HD on the iPad. So essentially, all this is, is just added controller support. Quite frankly I couldn’t care less about the Ouya. Sure it’s $99 but at that low price point what content is it really going to offer us? I can’t waste $99 on a console just because it’s not as expensive as other and has nothing really original to show what it can do.
Why would I care about this machine? Oh so I can play FF3 in HD? Or I could just buy the FF3 PSP port and save $99. If Ouya really wants my attention and money it’s gotta show me that it’s a worthwhile purchase. Which so far I don’t see any point in. I don’t have $99 to waste on something I might not use. I also don’t care about emulators for it.
Now I’m not being harsh on the Ouya because I want to be hipster about it. I’m being harsh because I want Ouya to prove to me that it has the right to exist among the big boys. I want it to show me what it can do. So would someone please make an original IP for it.
It’s pretty obvious why this happened, they already released an Android port, so adding a little filter to make it look a little more crisp and adding controller support is nothing special and definitely not a sign that Square Enix believes in the Ouya.
I was an early backer of the Ouya, and to see it snowball like this is pretty awesome, now all I have to do is cross my fingers and hope that it doesn’t explode in my face when (if) it arrives.
Well that’s a odd random choice.