OUYA developer kits on track for December release

The OUYA has made substantial progress since it surged past funding in early August. Giving fans an update on the Android-based console progress, OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman posted an update that talks a lot about the system's hardware and developer kit.

"We’ve been refining OUYA’s hardware design (cosmetics, mechanicals, electricals, thermals etc.). We’ve spent most of this time in the design phase, as getting it right up front saves us a lot of redesign and iteration later," Uhrman explained. "We’ve had some of the best engineers and designers take a look at every design element and fine tune it. Our CAD models and SLAs (plastic prototypes that provide us with a physical look and feel of the product) are finished, and we moved out of the design phase and into development a couple of weeks ago."

The OUYA team has received their first Printed Circuit Boards and as you can see from the picture, they are quite small.

"This is the heart (and we believe the soul) of the OUYA experience. It’s pretty amazing how our engineers have packed in Quad-Core awesomeness into such an unbelievably small package."

The team is now in the Engineering Verification Testing (EVT) phase where they will test both the console and the controller with the OUYA software, and really "push the performance limits" of the system's software. With the team set to complete the EVT phase on time, Uhrman announced that they are "in sync" with the December target for developer kits. Since the dev kits are in pre-production, they will be limited in quantity and each one will be a "collector's item" with a unique design, build, and appearance, different looking than the consumer-ready units.

If you're a developer looking to get a unit you can find more information here. If your a user who provided a username by the survey deadline than you'll soon be sent links so you can login to the upcoming OUYA user portal, review your username, verify your account info, and change your shipping info.