The Firehose: Diablo III, YouTube, Ouya & More

Recently at a GDC Panel, former Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson spoke a bit on his thoughts on the auction house. He believes the auction houses really hurt the game and they are looking into ways to address this in the future.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/29/diablo-3-auction-house-jay-wilson/

YouTube is entering the game video streaming space currently occupied by Twitch.tv. They cite the popularity of certain game videos and the massive ascent in game videos as entertainment.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/28/4157298/youtube-announces-new-live-streaming-video-platform-for-game-developers

Looks like the Ouya will see its retail launch June 4th. With a initial cost of $99 I could see myself picking one of these up, will you?

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/28/ouya-launches-at-retail-june-4-for-99/

The Free Bundle hits its 5th release including: Super Smash Land, Burn & Turn, The Witch's House, Alter Ego and The Battle For Wesnoth. With all the free to play games and the free bundle yet again proves you need not spend a dime to have fun on your PC.

http://www.thefreebundle.com/

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/30/2013 at 05:51pm

I'm excited for my Ouya to arrive! I don't really know when it will come. Hopefully in the next few weeks or so. Interesting development: Team Ouya has announced on the backer forums that a credit card will be required to be on file to download games. Most people seem pretty disappointed by this move, siting issues of security on such a new infrastructure. It doesn't really bother me that much, but I can see where they are coming from. I don't think any other game system requires such a thing (with the exception of Apple's App Store, maybe?), so I don't really know what Ouya's rationale is for implementing this.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/30/2013 at 10:12pm

Yeah, even the PSN doesn't make me have a Credit Card on file to download a demo. Account, yes, credit card no.

I can understand why they do it, its kind of a account validation thing but also to encourage people to buy. It wouldn't be my strategy but I understand why they doing it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/30/2013 at 10:13pm

Let me know how it goes when you get it. You were on the Kickstarter I take it?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/30/2013 at 10:57pm

Kickstarter, yes. They started shipping to backers on Friday, I think, sending an email to each backer as soon as the item ships. I'm a little worried, because I opted for the exclusive metallic brown model, and I don't know what priority those have, whether they will toss them in with the standard shipping rotation, or wait to ship them last.

One of the things they've been really good at is responding to feedback. Since the official launch is still a few months away, I'm sure they'll be tweaking things here and there, and I wouldn't be surprised if they offer another option for billing.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/31/2013 at 02:48am

Makes sense and hopefully they can ship the brown model soon. VERY interested to see how it turns out for you. Can you load it up with emulators as well as the Ouya store?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/31/2013 at 02:54am

Supposedly, it's going to ship with emulators available in the store. NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, what-have-you. It's entirely hackable, open system, so who knows what people will be making for it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/31/2013 at 02:04pm

That's great. Let me know how CG runs when you get it. Did they say what Browser it will ship with?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/31/2013 at 03:23pm

The early consoles that shipped to developers (I was going to say "dev consoles," but remembered that all Ouya systems are dev consoles) had some custom built-in browser, but I don't know if that will stick in the general release. I'm sure the Ouya store will have free downloads of whatever browsers run on Android.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/31/2013 at 06:29pm

I hope so. Whereas its not amazing to use a controller w a browser, its really nice to watch web video on my TV. I have a Mac Mini for that purpose but its getting long in the tooth and the latest and greatest browsers won't run on it. Technology moves quick.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.