Ouya dev consoles ship on 28th December to Kickstarter backers

The entirely open Android console Ouya is shipping its development consoles on 28th December to those who pledged over $700 on its Kickstarter.

These early dev consoles are still available for pre-order for $800 from the official site, and those ordered this way are expected to ship in January.

These prototype models (pictured below) are an early version of the final console, set to launch in March. "Of course, when the final consoles ship, every Ouya will be a dev console," noted Ouya's Jules Kane on the official blog. "What we didn't tell you was that the advance dev consoles you ordered are pretty special - you'll know what I mean when you open yours. They're rare drops."

While the Ouya dev consoles are quite expensive, the actual Ouya Dev Kit (ODK) will be available online as a free download for all game developers regardless of whether they actually purchased the console or not.