Hey Guys and Gals,

We’re stoked to release another system update, filled with a bunch of improvements that our engineers have been working their butts off to complete.  Our areas of focus have been:

1) External storage “Closed Beta” – We’ve been focused on this feature as our top priority and are just about ready to put external storage into a testing phase.

We’ve chosen to do a Closed Beta for a few reasons. It’s a big feature and there are a ton of different types of external storage out there, so we felt it was best to roll it out in stages. The staged rollout allows us to easily gather feedback and achieve the best possible product in the end. We’ve got a passionate community and we know you guys will come back to us with great feedback and creative bugs.  Additionally, we’re looking for ways to get our gamers and devs more involved in what makes OUYA tick. If this Beta is successful, it can pave the way for us to try and introduce more features earlier in their lifecycle.

If you are interested in participating in the Beta, please fill out the form here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jIMULlQuv4BZ1MjWNdZ4mX_R2fyeL3VaMRqGHWMfm34/viewform

We’ll start our first round of Beta invites next week.

2) Video Support – Now game detail pages can play videos! Often times some good ol’ moving pictures and sound are the best way to show how awesome a game truly is. We know this feature will help out Gamers and Developers alike. If I were more business savvy, I might even call that a “win-win” 😛

3) Bug Fixing – As I mentioned last time, bug fixing is important to us, so you’ll see a whole slew of bug fixes and user experience improvements in this update.  We even found a way to address that HDMI wakeup issue since some of you brought it up as a hot topic.

Below is the full list of changes, as well as an explanation about the name of the Update.

Full Release notes (10/08/2013):

• External Storage will enter Closed Beta next week! Interested in participating? Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jIMULlQuv4BZ1MjWNdZ4mX_R2fyeL3VaMRqGHWMfm34/viewform

• Added the ability to display video (for game trailers and footage) in the game details page. Developers can now upload videos to Vimeo and submit a link to show that video on their game’s page. If a video exists, it will display in the first screenshot slot.

• Added the ability to download a game without entering its game details page.  Just press the U button while highlighting a game’s tile to download.

• Fixed HDMI wakeup issue. If your TV was mysteriously waking up your OUYA, it should no longer do that after this update.

• Added “forgot password” option to the existing user sign-in screen. Now you’ll actually know where to go, if you can’t remember your password.

• We’ve changed “Download” to “Free Download” to make it clear that everything is free to try.  Not everyone knew that they wouldn’t be charged for a download, so now it’s crystal clear. It’s free to try ALL THE THINGS.

• Enlarging a screenshot (or video) now goes full screen (instead of just bigger).

• We now highlight the search substring when doing a search so it’s much more clear why you are getting each result. We’ve also moved game titles that start with your search to the top of the list. It’s way better.

• Improved performance (speed and smoothness) in PLAY with lots of installed games.

• Added a pop up message upon starting the console to remind users how to connect a controller.

• Changed sorting of buried and installed tiles in DISCOVER. It used to be Uninstalled, followed by Installed and Buried (mixed together). Now it’s Uninstalled, followed by Installed, followed by Buried.

• Devs: When uploading apks, it’s now more clear that you can use your previously published apk if you just want to edit text or screenshots…. or VIDEO =)

• Devs: you can now hide or change the mouse cursor in your games and apps.  For more info see the ODK Controllers document.

• Added Terms of Service to the console. Yup, it’s annoying to click through, but it makes the legal types happier. Think of the lawyers.

• In case you missed it, multiple currency support is now turned on! If you want to switch your wallet currency, there’s more info here: https://ouya.zendesk.com/entries/26777317-How-can-I-change-the-currency-of-my-OUYA-wallet-

• A bunch of other small bug fixes and optimizations.

So, uh… what’s up with “Ogopogo”?

Well, we realized that just naming each update after the date it was released was pretty boring, so we’re giving our updates a theme: Cryptids. One of our engineers, Jon, came up with the idea, so give him a virtual high-five (if not for him, the updates might have been named after Hall and Oates songs! :P)

A Cryptid is “a creature or plant whose existence has been suggested but is not recognized by scientific consensus” (thanks, Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptid). There are a lot of really neat Cryptids out there, so now we can hit you with some random knowledge every time we update.

Our first Cryptid is Ogopogo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo. We’ve got a few Canadian employees that were excited to have a Canadian Cryptid featured. I guess that means that Ogopogo is a very polite Loch Ness monster that loves hockey, eh? (I kid, I kid)

Thanks for all the continued support! Please keep on giving us your feedback and we’ll keep improving this labor of love we call OUYA =)

-James, Producer Dude