Sega shows faith in Ouya with Sonic partnership

A trio of Sonic titles will arrive on the Ouya during the console’s launch week, Sega has announced.

The publisher has struck an agreement with the up-and-coming console company to launch Sonic CD and Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episodes 1 & 2 on June 27th – just days after Ouya itself is set to launch on June 25th.

All three games are optimized for the hardware’s Tegra 3 processor and will fully participate in its free-to-try business model.

Ouya founder and chief executive officer Julie Uhrman told Games Industry that the partnership speaks to Ouya’s openness as a platform.

"Sega is an example of the types of developers that are coming to Ouya. We’ve always said that because Ouya is open, we lower the barriers for any type of developer, whether it’s AAA or a newcomer,” Uhrman said.

We’re going to see all types of developers and games on Ouya. We’re excited to have Sega as a partner, they’re a great publisher. Sonic is an iconic brand and we think it’s just going to add to the fun of playing on Ouya.”

Sega of America director of mobile business David Zemke dubbed Ouya disruptive technology” that just might give the competition a run for its money.

"For us, there were a couple of things that were exciting about Ouya. One is obviously that it’s a great gaming platform on a new device. When you get the chance to hook it up to an HDTV and watch it on a big screen, it’s actually quite impressive," Zemke said.

"It’s disruptive technology, right? It’s fun to see what these technologies can do and be a part of it from the beginning. For those two reasons alone, we’ve looked at it as yet another reason to bring some great Sega content to a whole new audience."

Ouya is set for a worldwide retail launch later this month.