Sega to release 3 Sonic games on Ouya

[ROJM]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sega-shows-faith-in-ouya-with-sonic-partnership/0116687

A trio of Sonic titles will arrive on the Ouya during the console’s launch week, Sega has announced.

The publisher has struck an agreement with the up-and-coming console company to launch Sonic CD and Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episodes 1 & 2 on June 27th – just days after Ouya itself is set to launch on June 25th.

All three games are optimized for the hardware’s Tegra 3 processor and will fully participate in its free-to-try business model.

Ouya founder and chief executive officer Julie Uhrman told Games Industry that the partnership speaks to Ouya’s openness as a platform.

"Sega is an example of the types of developers that are coming to Ouya. We've always said that because Ouya is open, we lower the barriers for any type of developer, whether it's AAA or a newcomer,” Uhrman said.

“We're going to see all types of developers and games on Ouya. We're excited to have Sega as a partner, they're a great publisher. Sonic is an iconic brand and we think it's just going to add to the fun of playing on Ouya.”

Sega of America director of mobile business David Zemke dubbed Ouya “disruptive technology” that just might give the competition a run for its money.

"For us, there were a couple of things that were exciting about Ouya. One is obviously that it's a great gaming platform on a new device. When you get the chance to hook it up to an HDTV and watch it on a big screen, it's actually quite impressive," Zemke said.

"It's disruptive technology, right? It's fun to see what these technologies can do and be a part of it from the beginning. For those two reasons alone, we've looked at it as yet another reason to bring some great Sega content to a whole new audience."

Ouya is set for a worldwide retail launch later this month.

While its games that everyone has played, the potential of future Sega games be it sonic or something new being made for  Ouya specifcally is quite intriguing if this system can gain a reasonable foothold in the market.

[max_cady]

Beat me to it!

Yes, that would be a good idea. The Ouya certainly does not have the same muscle as any of the major console players, but I've always felt that it could be a great entry level console for people who just want to have fun and not spend much on somewhat accessible games.

Call me crazy, but I think the Ouya could be something like a spiritual successor to the Wii as far as market goes.

SEGA did good, by porting their existing Android catalogue into this machine. I've seen a couple of testers trying out the original Android version of Sonic 4: Ep II and it has some performance issues. Tweaking the versions and porting them to Ouya is a good move.

[segaismysavior]

Thumbs way up on this one.

Now port Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi (with proper soundtrack) so they too have controller support. That would make my beating heart gush rainbows... um, in a manly way?

[TimmiT]

The Ouya is a console that only plays games that can already be played on not-so-powerful PCs and smartphones. SEGA only porting games to it doesn't really help change this. Not that they should make original games for it because the Ouya is just kind of a shitty neutered gaming PC.

[segaismysavior]

The Ouya is a console that only plays games that can already be played on not-so-powerful PCs and smartphones.

Pretty much, but it has a controller, and those games still manage to look decent. There's nothing wrong with matching the visuals of XBLA and PSN original games. Even iPhone/iPad visuals are impressive considering their limitations.

the Ouya is just kind of a shitty neutered gaming PC.

Build one of those for $100. Even low-grade PC components required to output visuals equal to Ouya will cost 2-3 times that.