Giant Bomb OUYA app?

I'm getting my OUYA with everyone else who backed it, and would love to see a Giant Bomb app for it. I don't have another box on my TV that can play GB stuff. I don't expect that the team would put one together (probably pretty low on the totem pole, understandably) and wonder if anyone is going to work on one? People talk of a Roku GB channel. How did that work? Who made it?

If nobody is already going to, I'd be willing to put together a pool of cash from us users to pay someone to make one. If enough people are interested, of course.

The Ouya supports Android apps, right? So, shouldn't you just be able to download the Android GB App and run it on there? I don't know if it's setup for TV display, but it would be something.

From what I can gather the Ouya is an Android device with a default extra store (think Amazon App Store, Steam, whatever 3rd party store on an open platform) but the problem is you'll need to find the Google Play app author and ask them to submit their app to the Ouya store or pass you the executable.

Android is an open source OS (with bits like the Linux kernel and Webkit renderer being copyleft so you are required by the license to release any of your changes back to the community) with releases coming out of the AOSP (Android Open Source Project). That means anyone can grab the source code and compile it for their device. I can get someone to put together a custom SoC (not cheaply) and then go about getting Android compiling for it for my custom Android device.

The Google apps are not free open source software. This includes the store, currently called Google Play. Google have played ball with the custom firmware groups (eg CyanogenMod) and, while they do not allow them to distribute these apps inside their ROMs, they do allow the separate distribution of an app pack (normally just a zip) that contains all the Google apps. This is how someone building from AOSP can include the Google apps for non commercial purposes, people who make official Android (TM) devices talk to Google and do a deal to get official license to use those apps. Unless you're a small player building a system entirely designed around making Android apps that don't work on normal Android devices, like Ouya, Then Google might not say yes. So no Google Play store. It's the difference between running Android, and running Android with Google's blessing.

So as long as the writer of the current Android GB app is still active and want to look at any possible compatibility issues then it should just be a case of possible grabbing an Ouya to test it and submitting it to the Ouya app store. It's all the same JVM/dodgy native code with not enough lib access so you might as well build something using the JVM code and the Tegra 3 is a common SoC so it isn't like the Ouya even has exotic custom internals. If the GB Android app is also distributed as a .apk then all that stuff about Android vs Android with Google is rather moot as you can just run that on the Ouya to install it direct without going via any stores.

I've been poking around with Android recently so might be tempted to have a go if the current GB app is inactive but obviously I won't step on someone else's toes if the dev is still maintaining their app and it provides all the functionality people want.

Android ,so I figure there is a GB app on that platform. Funny, a buddy got a oyua just to use as a streaming box.

Why didn't he just get a RaspberryPi? Cheaper, and runs XBMC with 1080p playback. Well, unless he wants to use it for games too, it just sounded like he was using it as streaming only.

@chavtheworld: I assume for the same reason a lot of people bought a PS3. They wanted a Blu-Ray player but said "I guess I can also play Call of Duty on this BR player." Can RaspberryPi play games? I have no idea. I barely know what it is.

@galacticgravy: Can the Oyah play call of doody?

@chavtheworld: Nah, by that I mean "hey this is a box I can watch twitch on. also i can play a game if there's something I like."

I'd be interested in making one if the regular android app does not work. Let me know if it does or not. Really, a more controller friendly interface would be enough of a reason to make it.