Rumors of Apple bringing iOS apps in a gaming console of some kind have long been rumored - Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple has fallen into the video games industry due to the success of iOS, but the company won't enter in a "traditional" sense - and competitors to Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft haven't existed. A challenger emerges, however, in the form of OUYA: an open source, Android-based gaming console for just $99.

Ouya can be backed now on Kickstarter and, with 28 days to go as of writing, the $950,000 goal has more than doubled: $2,223,050 has been pledged. The development team need nigh on a million dollars for hardware development, which seemed excessive considering Tim Schafer and Double Fine became the first to break the million dollar mark with the Double Fine Adventure game.

"Developers can wave farewell to the roadblocks of bringing a game console to market. Anyone can make a game: every OUYA console is a dev kit. No need to purchase a license or SDK. It's built on Android, so developers already know how it works," the developers said on the Kickstarter page. The console is open source because SDKs are bundled with the console and it can be taken apart: the console is built with screws.

Numerous high profile developers have backed the project: Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft, said bringing indie games to the living room is a "great idea;" Jenova Chen of thatgamecompany, creators of Flower and Journey, said there is always room to change the status quo; and Adam Saltsman, creator of Canabalt, likes the idea of an affordable open source gaming console. Even the Wii, a console pitched to casual gamers, retailed above $100. There hasn't been a widely adopted gaming console recently where developers can dive into the console, along with enthusiast consumers.

Rumors earlier in March 2012 suggested Valve would be developing an open source gaming console, similar to the Alienware X51 in form - a patent showed the device and a detachable controller - (that machine would even be forward compatible with the Steam Box, as it was called, according to The Verge). Valve later denied the Box would be arriving soon, but didn't rule out the prospect.

Pledging begins at just $10, which reserves a username for launch. $25 gets a founder emblem also, $99 gets an OUYA console, $225 gets the console and two controllers with a username etched on, while $10,000 - the highest pledge - gets a backer's username and pledge number etched onto the first production run of consoles. Those backers will also be invited to a private party with game designers and developers.