Ouya, the company behind the self-titled gaming console that gained a considerable amount of fame and donations thanks to a month-long stint on Kickstarter, is reportedly right on schedule. The device's founders have said the console will ship to early backers (developers) as planned on December 28.
The company says the developer consoles are simply an early version of the Ouya hardware and gamepad designed for developers to test their games with. But as they pointed out in a recent Kickstarter project update, this first batch has something special in store for their new owners. They didn't outline exactly what that is, but it was described as a "rare drop." Once the console reaches general availability, Ouya noted that all consoles will be dev units.
Furthermore, the software developer kit will also be made available on the 28th. Unlike the console, however, the SDK will be available for everyone to download and work with. They also took the opportunity to publish a photo of an actual prototype console.
If you weren't one of the lucky ones to get in on the Ouya action during the Kickstarter campaign or simply didn't have the money to spend at the time, fear not as the founders have set up a special dev console giveaway to give some people another chance at it.
Starting December 10, they plan to give one dev console away each day for 10 days. Interested parties should check out the giveaway page for more information on how to enter.