OUYA (Founding Backer Edition) Review

[dgz]

While I would say that many people are not an intended target audience, I think what the Ouya would really work for is a small family that doesn't exactly have a lot of money for a tablet or next gen video game system that wants to give their kids something to play on that isn't going to stretch their budget. A tablet plus controllers can easily exceed 500 - 600. A smart phone is $200 on contract. However I think that an Ouya would be great for developers to make games for it to appeal to anyone and everyone. Do you have to get one? I don't have a PS3, just an Xbox 360 and broken Wii. Did I back Ouya? Yes, but I want to see a system that gives indies main stream access. Cut down the red tape. It's been there long enough.

My head hurts. 500-500 for a tablet and controllers? Is this a thing? Where are the games? What's the point? WTF is going on?

I don't get this poor family example. First of all, I don't believe this is the case, but even if it is as you say, somehow I can't imagine that target audience backing projects on Kickstarter, you know. It is not only absurd, it's arrogant.

The last thing a poor family needs is an initially cheap console that only has shit, short, and/or fairly low quality games for a 10 bucks each. Instead, they could get a PC and pirate everything. I mean it. Why? Their money ain't gonna save or bankrupt anyone.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

Wow, the perception that the Ouya is anything but a game console has me puzzled. It is a game console. It can run other applications though because of Android. The reason Android was chosen was to make it so that you can develop games for it easy since it's based on Tegra 3. Tegra 3 is not an outdated SoC. The chip that Ouya is using is from Q2 2012. So maybe a year old. Can you really call that Outdated? The Xbox 360 is Outdated being 8 years old. The Ouya uses the same Cortex-A9 MP Core as what the PS Vita uses. It's the GPU that's different in both with the Ouya being the GeForce ULP.

While I would say that many people are not an intended target audience, I think what the Ouya would really work for is a small family that doesn't exactly have a lot of money for a tablet or next gen video game system that wants to give their kids something to play on that isn't going to stretch their budget. A tablet plus controllers can easily exceed 500 - 600. A smart phone is $200 on contract. However I think that an Ouya would be great for developers to make games for it to appeal to anyone and everyone. Do you have to get one? I don't have a PS3, just an Xbox 360 and broken Wii. Did I back Ouya? Yes, but I want to see a system that gives indies main stream access. Cut down the red tape. It's been there long enough.

Problem with this example is the one I have pointed out over and over and over. If a family is of limited means and wants to buy a game system, what are they going to buy?

1) a Unknown product for $99 advertising itself as a game console that only plays android games.

2) A new Nintendo Wii at $129 with a Known huge library of family friendly titles, or even a Used one for Sub $100 with the same benefits.

3) A Used Xbox 360 for under $100 with the same known library.

4) A used Ps3..see above

5) A New PS2 with a library that blows all of the above out of the water.

If I were a betting man..I wouldn't Bet on Ouya being considered. So, it has big shoes to fill if it wants to be a game console and right now it just isn't. Mobile games just aren't that compelling to want to sit down at your TV. So that leaves it with the streaming media space...which is chock full of solutions that just do a better job.

OUYA..does a bunch of things..just none of them very good.

 

[pxc]

^ yeah, I'm not sure kids will be demanding an OUYA over Nintendo, MS and Sony consoles. Nerds and geeks will be buying it, and that's pretty much it.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

^ yeah, I'm not sure kids will be demanding an OUYA over Nintendo, MS and Sony consoles. Nerds and geeks will be buying it, and that's pretty much it.

Basically..people forget that even in lower incomes..What the kids want plays a big role when price points are close.

Don't get me wrong, despite all the negative posts. I think the Ouya is a neat device. I do plan on picking one up if it manages to do decently well. I just don't see anyone beating down the doors for one as it just doesn't really do much that most won't already have something that does it better. I see it as a more advanced Rasberry Pi. A Cool tinker device for someone that wants to blow $100 and that is about it.

 

[soulman901]

1(Dekoth-E). Unknown Product - Well it would be unknown until Target/Best Buy/Amazon starts to advertise them. Roku was unknown product for a few years until these stores/websites started to carry them and advertise for them. Getting shelf space for a device like this is very tough in the industry. And for something like this to happen is very good.

2(Dekoth-E). Used PS3 Systems run for $209.99 and a Used Xbox 360 runs for $149.99.
Getting any features out of those two systems will cost you additional money, such as Netflix for Xbox 360 which will still cost you a Gold Membership.

3(DGZ). A Nexus 10 Inch with Two PS3 Controllers would run about $500.

4(DGZ). I never said that the family was poor. I said that they had a tighter budget to live within. Something like this would appeal to them. As for them to back this on Kickstarter I didn't say anything of the sort. This was backed(mostly) by people who are tired of the console space being closed. While we may see android ports on the system, we also should see some games developed for the Ouya that are not shit/short. This is not a mobile phone which is what those games are intended for.

5(DGZ). Pirate everything? Is that really an example you want to set for people? If you can't afford it hey you can steal it, it'll be ok. Like that a movie here a movie there..
That's some great example you're setting there.

6(Babbster). You're calling Ouya a Niche product when that is exactly what Project Shield is to begin with? Whose going to be selling the device? Newegg? Amazon? I doubt Target will be carrying it. BestBuy maybe but that's hard to see them carrying that. And at what price point? $400? This looks to be nothing more than a side project that Nvidia likes to spring on people now and then. They make good GPU/Processors that are sold to their vendors. That's their real cash, not side projects like Project Shield which if it was ready in two months, there would be more information on it and you wouldn't call it by an internal codename.


7(Babbster). The hardware may be behind the Tegra 4 but why should that matter. Developers should be able to leverage the Tegra 3 to make some outstanding games specifically for the Ouya.

8(Babbster).

Besides, the current business plans of indie developers seem to revolve around the "free-to-play" model which of course is code for "free to play in a limited way for a limited period of time unless you pay frequently."

The model is Free to Play for a limited time and pay full price when you are ready. This is the same model as other platforms such as Xbox 360? I can download a demo, play it for a bit, if I like the game I can pay full price for it. Now if you are talking about F2P which is a different model, I'd hate to break it to you but EA and a lot of the top tier publishers want to see it that way so they can get more money. Basically greedy IMO.

9(Babbster). Indies have not appreciated how they've been treated by Microsoft / Sony / Nintendo. Go read up on it. Steam does a much better job of supporting Indies but the cost of getting on any of those platforms is greater. Microsoft's Indie Channel was a couple of times pushed to the bottom of the pile until people got on Microsoft about that. XNA is dead so there's your Microsoft Support on that. Nintendo is a nightmare to work with.

 

[Babbster]

6(Babbster). You're calling Ouya a Niche product when that is exactly what Project Shield is to begin with? Whose going to be selling the device? Newegg? Amazon? I doubt Target will be carrying it. BestBuy maybe but that's hard to see them carrying that. And at what price point? $400? This looks to be nothing more than a side project that Nvidia likes to spring on people now and then. They make good GPU/Processors that are sold to their vendors. That's their real cash, not side projects like Project Shield which if it was ready in two months, there would be more information on it and you wouldn't call it by an internal codename.

Project Shield is definitely a niche product, too. I don't see either it or Ouya going anywhere. I'm open to being wrong (it's happened once or twice before) but I don't see it. My point in comparing the two was that Ouya is going to be released into a market where it's potentially already outclassed and it will definitely be outclassed by the end of the year. The talk of releasing a new version every year (see older news posts; I don't have a link handy) isn't exactly comforting, either. Roku has been doing this but the basic functionality hasn't really changed since they reached HD resolution; adding a motion remote and Angry Birds isn't a big incentive to upgrade a Roku. This wouldn't be the case if Ouya released a Tegra 4 version next year and a Tegra 5 the year after that.

7(Babbster). The hardware may be behind the Tegra 4 but why should that matter. Developers should be able to leverage the Tegra 3 to make some outstanding games specifically for the Ouya.

Should, could, etc. I'll believe it when I see it. As it is, there's little incentive for developers to aim for the Ouya as opposed to aiming for Android in general; in fact, there's disincentive given the inevitably smaller numbers of them which people will be using. Keep in mind also that Android already has problems with fewer people buying compared to IOS and the fact that rooting the Ouya is touted as a feature.

8(Babbster).
The model is Free to Play for a limited time and pay full price when you are ready. This is the same model as other platforms such as Xbox 360? I can download a demo, play it for a bit, if I like the game I can pay full price for it.

That's what you want the model to be. It remains to be seen if that's the way it will be. Ouya is pledging that all games will have at least a free component but that leaves it to the developers to decide how to meet that requirement. The biggest game being touted for Project Shield and maybe Ouya, mentioned earlier in this thread, is Hawken and it is going with the pay-as-you-go model.

9(Babbster). Indies have not appreciated how they've been treated by Microsoft / Sony / Nintendo. Go read up on it. Steam does a much better job of supporting Indies but the cost of getting on any of those platforms is greater. Microsoft's Indie Channel was a couple of times pushed to the bottom of the pile until people got on Microsoft about that. XNA is dead so there's your Microsoft Support on that. Nintendo is a nightmare to work with.

Yeah, I've seen indie developers bitch and I've seen many of those who bitch continue to develop games for those platforms, presumably because they're making money on the deal.

Steam's great but until there's a Steambox it's irrelevant to this discussion which is about boxes a regular Jane or Joe might attach to a TV. If one expects a Steambox that does more than streaming PC games (the Project Shield "killer" feature that makes me want to gag) then the Ouya and Shield make even less sense.

 

[Edgar]

How well does it run xbmc? Better UI than my boxee box? I know support is dead for boxee but I still love mine.

 

[Furbykilla]

Azhar, well spoken my friend.

 

[HardUp4HardWare]

XBMC, Emulators, streaming media. A Roku is $99 bucks and this does more. Worth it no matter how you slice it or bash it, and I love my Roku's.

I didn't know you could run XBMC on roku.
Maybe I should reconsider this. I hated the standard Roku UI.

 

[volt1up]

Wow.

 

[MikeTrike]

I didn't know you could run XBMC on roku.
Maybe I should reconsider this. I hated the standard Roku UI.

I was getting at you can't run XBMC on Roku, but will be able to on this. I use Plex with my Roku though.