So I got am e-mail from Amazon about pre-ordering the Ouya. I know that in this thread that it was mostly savaged. I’m interested in what you think now that the product is real.
I’ll be convinced if/when a decent number of killer apps come out. Until then, I’m very skeptical that it will ever have any sort of user base.
It’s cool that they’re actually shipping something. That’s more success than I expected from the project.
I agree with Palooka in that I’m surprised this is even happening, and agree with Jragon that I still don’t actually give a carp because I don’t expect anyone to actually use it.
More specifically, the big problem with game platforms is they need some sort of deal to get going. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have the money and clout to get exclusives and huge games developed for them. Ouya is open source, which is great, but they don’t have any way to draw people to their console.
This is a bit of a Catch-22, because without the games and exclusives nobody will come – and, barring some sort of incentive (like the Ouya team subsidizing the game such as the big three do from time to time), nobody will take the time to develop for a console with no user base.
The big problem is that the concept of “paid exclusivity” somewhat undermines the philosophy of “open source”. You can’t pay to lock down a developer and not expect the Open Source fanbois to scream “TRAITOR”. Even so, if they could have gotten Notch/Majong, Edmund Macmillan, Pixel, or some other Indie darling to pledge an exclusive game (or at least exclusive for <x> months, or remake a popular release with exclusive content), that would have been a great start. But without some sort of hook, I’m incredibly worried about the device being anything other than a brick – or at best, an Android phone that’s not actually mobile – by next year.
Also, doesn’t Android OS rely on Java? That’s a significant hiderance to any sort of AAA game coming out on there because of Java’s performance penalties. I’m not one of those people who freak out at anybody who dares to take the performance hit of not programming in C++, but in practical terms Java is good enough for indie games, but for a AAA game with good graphics the JVM’s performance hit really handicaps you.
I don’t really get what someone would want this for. On the other hand, apparently some people out there were interested enough to put up 8 million dollars just to see it made back when it looked like it might be a scam, so obviously there’s some sort of demand out there.
Don’t underestimate the masses and their desire to save a buck with “good enough” quality. The games are basically Nintendo 64 quality, but that could be good enough for young or unsophisticated gamers.
We have a PS3, Xbox and old Nintendo 64. Although the PS3 and Xbox do get used, when my teenage kids have a group of friends over, 90% of the time Super Smash Bros gets fired up and it’s the only game they play, and they love it.
Yeah, but Nintendo is like bloody magic. Smash in particular. You can bet money that if there were a Smash game on the Xbox or the PS3, they would be getting played instead.
Killer exclusives. The Ouya does not have them.
But I can see those types of games (simple, fun, easy to make) getting created for the Ouya and being “good enough” for many. The Ouya could be successful by eating the bottom half of Wii’s sales.
Why would you develop a game and then make it available just on Ouya, instead of PCs, other consoles and Android devices.
I never said that would or should happen.
But, if there is a $100 device in the store that lets you play games, and there are games on it that are “good enough” to be fun, then there is a real possibility people will buy it instead of paying $250 for a Wii or other consoles.
The problem I see here is that without a crazy marketing budget “young or unsophisticated gamers” aren’t going to know about the Ouya. It’s only people who follow gaming news sites that will hear about it, and for young gamers, getting the console with a name their friends recognize (and likely have as well) is a big part.
I could be surprised, of course, but as of now the Ouya is basically marketed to Open Source nerds, not the kind of casual gamers that “good enough” games will attract. IMO, the only reason the Wii “bottom half” even exists is primarily marketing. Grandma wouldn’t even know about how awesome Wii Sports Bowling was if Nintendo didn’t intentionally target the demographic.
No it can’t, that’s the thing; At this point, the casual people who bought the Wii are just playing the games they have for the Wii, and not really buying new ones. They’re not in the market anymore.
I read an article the other day that Ouya is going to have a new hardware release every year, using a cellphone upgrade model rather than a console upgrade model. They’re promising that everything will be backwards compatible.
There are new sales of consoles (all varieties including Wii) every single year. The market did not just come to a complete halt.
And those (obviously, did I really need to spell this out? seriously?) are what I’m referring to when I say an unsophisticated/young/casual gamer market could possibly partially shift to something like the Ouya.
Good points. The only way for something to be successful is for people to be able to make money (retailers, game publishers, etc.) which in turn allows for money to be spent on marketing.
If a retailer can’t make money selling these then it does seem like it would be stuck in a little niche. Is the selling price of $100 about the same as cost to build? If so then that’s a problem.
If they also manage to pack in some sort of game streaming service in there that could solve the problem of “big games”.
At least for the people with connected homes… and let’s face it, that’s exactly who they are targeting.
of course not; But the Wii still has a super low tie rating (games sold per system) and it’s not the “low end” market that’s still buying it. Either they got in on it when it was trendy, or they’ve forgotten about it by now. The Wii is no longer “a thing” for people who don’t view themselves as ‘gamers’.
But it wouldn’t be “shifting”; The Ouya basically has to break that market open all over again. There is no natural “flow” from “bought a Wii five years ago because they loved Wii Bowling and Boom Blox” to “thinks an Ouya is a ‘good enough’ game device, even if they’ve heard of it.”
The “console market” has been, essentially, contracting for the past several years as the people who bought Wiis when they were new and exciting cease buying new games. The Ouya needs to do more then convince those people that it’s ‘good enough’ - it needs to enter their consciousness and then persuade them that they WANT it. This is not remotely equivalent to the smartphone market where a bunch of people said “Oh hey, the games on this thing (That I’ve already got) aren’t half bad, maybe I’ll buy some.”; It’s a traditional console. A dedicated gaming device. It needs to sell itself to people before folks can decide that the games on it are “good enough”.
I can’t argue about whether it’s a thing or not for people that don’t view themselves as gamers, and that may be important, all I can argue about is price points and the general notion that there are different types of gamers.
If group X is currently spending $150 to $200 on a console, and a new one appears for $100, then some percentage of group X will most likely purchase it (disregarding the marketing arguments).
This is a typical pattern, most people buy the least expensive item in a class regardless of quality (typically because they don’t really understand all of the details about quality vs competition).
It seems like you are shifting between console sales and sales of the games on the console when you make some of your points.
I’m talking purely about console sales at this point. Granny walks into a store, wants something for when 7yr old kid is at her house, sees a $100 device and a demo screen with a game that looks reasonably fun, and a $200 device - some will buy the $100.
So that’s one scenario, are there enough of those to be successful? Not sure.
Sure. But I don’t think there are enough of them to make up a ‘market’.
I kindof am, because they’re linked together. The console has to sell AND people need to buy games for it for it to be a success. And one of the main drivers of selling a console is there BEING games for it. And one of the main drivers for people to make games for a platform is their perceiving that there are enough people on that platform to recoup their investment. There’s definitely some egg/chicken stuff going on.
Do we even know if the Ouya is going to be “in stores”? Right now they’ve very proudly announced a deal to sell it on Amazon, but I haven’t heard anything about retail.