Ouya’s operating system will be available for consumers to download and install to their own hardware, it has been revealed.

Lead engineer Zak Phelps explained the Ouya will “be as simple as a store that you can install onto your [Android] device”, not unlike Valve’s Steam OS initiative.

“Eventually the Ouya store will be available for download,” he told Digital Spy at GDC 2014.

“That way if you want to install onto a tablet you can, under some very specific guidelines about here’s the types of things it’ll work with and won’t work with.”

While plans to charge for the operating system have yet to be decided, Phelps added that it is “in our best interest to provide our developers with the widest base possible”.

Phelps added: “The goal is to make that available sometime in the next six months.”

The plans join the recently-announced Ouya Everywhere scheme, which allows hardware partners – such as Mad Catz with its upcoming M.O.J.O micro-console – to run Ouya games.

With Ouya games soon to become available on a variety of different hardware specifications, Phelps said the firm will “take the spear point and solve the majority of the problems” for developers by providing quality assurance, specifications and initial platform testing, as well as the option to opt out of certain consoles if hardware isn’t up to task.

Although Ouya will be inviting consumers and hardware manufacturers to run its games on their own hardware within six months, it added it will always have its own hardware solution available, with improved specifications to be introduced when the pricing is right.

“I don’t want to say that we [will upgrade hardware] on a yearly iteration cycle if necessary,” Phelps explained.

“I will say we will make sure that we have the best platform in market, for the right price point.

“Price point to us is a huge consideration. The Mad Catz M.O.J.O. is $250 (£151) for a reason, and it’s a great platform. They’ve done a great job on that hardware.”

He continued: “We want to be proud of what we deliver every single time. That’s where, if the price point is right and the hardware is right, then yes, we’ll release a console.

“If we can’t find the right price point for our consumer, and for us we need to be under $150 (£90), then we won’t.”

Source: Digital Spy