The console video gaming world has become, mostly, stagnant; full of sequels upon sequels. Current games are chocked full of DRM for overplayed, non-innovative titles. The market has become less about making great games that people love, and more about making executives money. It's terribly depressing and is directly responsible for me stopping my, over 25 year, love of gaming.
I, along with others, have doubts about the platform. However, I would absolutely love to see it affect some change in what the video gaming market has mostly become. I would love to see more independent developers making lots of money and pumping out cool, fun to play, games on a system that is accessible beyond the PC.
Honestly, when your target audience are people so devoted to a frivolous activity that they willing buy devices with no other purpose than to consume carefully curated content, it becomes hard to see them as anything other than a paycheck.
Mmmmmm, how deliciously condescending. I wonder if that's how musicians, actors, and iOS developers feel? I make software for desktops, so I respect my target audience (of course, frivolous workstation abuse is quite common, but it's too much effort to maintain a high horse for all those edge cases)
You say that with scorn. And yet here you are, talking about frivolity on the internet.
So any consumer of content deserves simply scorn and ridicule? What high and mighty bs.
I'd like to see them do well, but I'm personally not going to treat it as something special until they show that it is. So far it sounds like a shovel-ware conduit to the TV and that gets people nothing.
Every July and December gamers on Steam go crazy over sales - twice yearly excitement in general that the big three consoles only get at launch and with major title releases every few years.
That's why I like Ouya, it focuses on another market, a market where consoles generally have done really great, arcade style games. Also, with the possibility to use it as a media center is a killer feature for many people.
If you really want to be at the very bleeding edge of what's possible in gaming, the PC market is alive and well. The console market is more affordable and consequently more inclusive.
> "This kind of money is clearly a message the world needs a product like this."
I doubt this. There's a [very small] market for a product like this. The power of the internet is that this [very small] demographic can come together, pool their resources, and create something they all want. This does not mean that there's a mass-market or mainstream product waiting to jump out.
Sure, it might be able to run 1080p games faster with a few more effects.
A TV console, however, doesn't need to incrementally improve as fast as a gaming computer, because the TV gamers aren't constantly upgrading to higher resolution monitors.
7755 Ouya + Controller
2500 Ouya + 2 Controllers
826 Ouya Dev Kits
By April 2013. Good luck guys~
It's interesting to note some figures; if you assume $50 US per ouya that's $2,910,350 or 33% of the collected costs to make the hardware; double that to a guess of $100 per unit and you looking at ~68% of the collected Kickstarter.
Realistically the hardware is probably relatively cheap to manufacture in bulk, and it'll probably end up towards the $50 rather than $100 mark, especially if they decide not to upgrade to newly released hardware.
Just interesting numbers.
>7755 Ouya + Controller
I thought that sounded odd. All have a controller, the second is 'limited edition brown'.
As for costs.. i am guessing they will probably make an order for 100k? (They have the cash, plenty of time for more pre-orders, and surely expect to sell some after launch, and they are tiny so easy to store). At those quantities my guess for a cost breakdown; SOC; $15, nand $3, wireless radios $6, case $5, power $4, controller $10, battery $2. So i think $50 is realistic, they will need FCC certification etc. Keep in mind they are (planning) making them for almost 9 months out, tegra 4 will no doubt be out, nand prices will be lower, tiny case, low power, cheap looking controller (sorry).
If anything, the money raised only proves the fact that over 60k people jumped in on the bandwagon of a non-existent console with no controller design that plans to ship in an almost unrealisable timeframe.
I want people that try bold things to succeed as much as the next guy but my (and others') concerns about the OUYA are far more elaborated than their ability to raise money.
Funny, from Day 1, I've always looked at the Ouya as a cheaper Boxee Box that also plays some games as gravy.
If it can do MAME or Final Burn (which I expect some enterprising hackers will have made a reality by the time Ouya's available for the masses), even better.
I'll probably pick one up when it's released to play videos and music, and hopefully there are some good games on it, especially if that Namco-Bandai relationship turns out to be real. If the games all suck, it's no loss, because I'll still have XBMC. If the Ouya team's paying attention, they'll also make sure Netflix is available on day one too.
If corporate behemoths want in, they can do the same thing as everyone else and write SN app for it.
What was it, maybe 7-8 years ago Google was still a scrappy start up sticking it to MS and AOL?
Also, not sure how many Ouya-specific games will make it out, but it should be great for emulation and media streaming.
Google could've had this advantage as well with Google TV, but they never cared about making Google TV a console, or better yet, a "console platform". Too bad. I'm hoping OUYA succeeds, although I still can't get myself to buy one unless it has a 2013-worthy mobile chip inside.
This "just port to our completely different model out games, no big deal bro" messaging is actually what the Ouya people have themselves said and it's a major reason I'm convinced they're not competent or want cheap, bad games. If they bothered to study what has come before,they would have looked at the difficulty of a good port from the 360 to WP7 via DNA. But either they didn't our they did and want is to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Oh--and they want to release for April 2013 and have zero developer documentation. Reminds me why these guys are seen as being on the up and up?
With the nexus 7 finally bringing a non-sucky open tablet to market, and Ouya proving that users and developers want open (Or at the very least that open products have a chance in the market.), I'm feeling more comfortable with a technology landscape full of tablets, smartphones and purpose specific devices like gaming consoles.
I'm also happy that an open-source based operating system is becoming the mainstream. It's an exciting time to be a developer or an entrepreneur :) (these technologies becoming mainstream enable so many things, I don't know where to start!).
The controller hasn't changed since the mid-1980s. Almost all the game console makers make the same damned controllers with exception to the Wii there's been almost no innovation.
It's about time to rethink the standard controller design. I'm not talking about game-specific controllers, like the gun or joystick. I think there needs to be something more attached to actual human body movements.
I know this project was about an open game console, but I think this creates the opportunity for innovation in hardware accessories (i.e. the controller). I think we could do a lot better than the same old formula:
Up+Down+Left+Right A+B+X+Y R1+R2+L1+L2 Select+Start (ALL BUTTONS)
Changing controller design would be a foolhardy adding of risk. Something very familiar is a great choice for it
Another point is the openness, it being so open for not only software hacks but also hardware hacks, will it also produce a lot of cheaters in online multiplayer games?
I pledged, and personally, I can't wait to get my hands on it! I think the media player capabilities and Android compatibility will make the product succeed anyhow. Certainly, the campaign (904% of Kickstarter goal) already has.
