I love my video games. I may not be particularly good at them, but I do love them. The trouble is that buying a new $60 game for my Xbox 360 every once in a while can get very expensive, very quickly.

And that’s why the Ouya sounds like it could be compelling. There’s not much known about this cube-shaped mystery console, aside from the fact that it will be running on some version of Android and it’ll retail for about $99. What’s more, it will have “a focus on free gaming.” It’s also “built to be hacked,” so every customer effectively gets “a dev kit in the bargain.”

It may look good on paper, but I wouldn’t get overly enthusiastic about this. Generic Android devices are pretty consistently bad and if I really wanted to play some half-decent free games, I’d play them on a real Android smartphone or tablet. Yes, those cost more than $99, but I’m thinking that throwing a Benjamin at Ouya is just a waste of money.

Of course, I’d be more than happy if designer Yves Behar proved me wrong with his Ouya box. After all, he’s getting backed by former Xbox-er Ed Fries and former IGN exec Julie Uhrman.

Via Kotaku