For those that do not know what Ouya is:
Ouya is a open source game console. It means to change the way we view development of games by using open and available Andriod systems so ANYONE can develop a game and throw it up in the marketplace for people to buy and play.
There definitely are some brilliant ideas and a growing passion behind the new console. The people backing and developing the Ouya really seem to believe in its future success. After reaching and exceeding its original Kickstarter goal of $950,000 (a whopping $8.5 million total), it seems like the Ouya really is on the path to being something huge! But as of late, it seems the hype has come to a simmer and many questions are starting to be asked about the quality and quantity of the games being made for it.
My questions right now are digging a bit more at the core of what the Ouya is and it’s relevancy today. For example:
Don’t PCs exist?
Haven’t people been developing for them for years? Do they not support the ability to harbor all indie developers out there and provide an open way to massively produce games without the limitations of a console? Don’t they already do everything the Ouya is trying to do? Is it just that they want to market this small console to the console owners market?
Yes, I have a LOT of questions, but the Ouya is been something I have been skeptical about for a while. It seems like it is just another way for indie developers to make more money on the games they have put out on your phone and sold from their webpages via Paypal.
The Ouya developers talk about how you can crack it and use it however you want. This is just like anything using Android systems but when you have very set and limited technological specs of a system to work with, how long of a life span will this system realistically have?
The lifespan of it is also very much limited by the delays they keep enduring.
Recently, the Ouya release was pushed back from the original June 9th date. With the PS4 on the horizon and the next Xbox being announced on the 21st of this month, whose eyes are gonna still be on this? New consoles will be taking almost all attention away from the Ouya. Honestly, what do you think most console gamers want to hear more about?
On top of this, how much backing from developers will this really get? They have Adam Saltsman, creator of Calabalt, saying his game is already up in the marketplace and claims say that Minecraft will be there soon enough. But who doesn’t have those games elsewhere? I got Canabalt a good 2 years ago for my phone and have played that and many other more elaborate versions of that since. Also, I already purchased Minecraft back when it was a small game in ’09 being tossed around in some internet image board. Why do I want to purchase these again on a console I would need to buy first? I’ve got other means of playing these games.
We need new content!
The system is not going to survive on a few games people have played and owned for possibly years. There is nothing being developed for it that has me excited at all. Have a flagship game that will show what your console can do at it’s best. Why is your marketing team trying to get people psyched for Final Fantasy III making it’s first US T.V. debut with the release of the Ouya? I played it on my DS already!
Honestly, I am kind of lost as to how the Ouya will be profitable. I just don’t see where the money is going to come from and how it will compete with new major console releases around the corner. I don’t want anyone thinking I am rooting against them in their struggle to become something big. I applaud all entrepreneurship and think that the concept of the Ouya is ballsy and awesome but when I think of it realistically… I see a lot of issues.
Ouya is due out, at the moment, on June 25th.
