Eurogamer has an article up with a very negative interpretation. I'm guessing it'll be followed later with the opposite view presented in another article, as they've done before on other subjects.
OUYA - Android console
- Thread starter ninzel
- Start date
its a friggen phone without touchscreen and the powersupply taped on, from a true "set-top box" I`d expect sata and lan connectors (maybe an internal HDD slot aswell)... fast ones and not some USB dongles (likely hanging on a single USB port no less). as far as hacking goes, im way more likely to get myself a wdtv live or something similar - gpl sources are available.
So its rather crap as media center, depends on a "java phone-os" and so far has no "native" games that would work without a touchpad. I really fail to see where the appeal is, yet there is hope of this getting big traction and establishing itself as an own platform big enough to matter besides ios, android, PSSuite/Vita, PSN, XBLive, Steam, AppleTV, SmartTV, etc.... but Im rather sceptical about that.
given that most android games are ports from ios, where the significant money is been made I dont see this a very viable option for developers trying to sell stuff. and given how open it is I have little doubt that the first ever custom firmware would allow homebrew, signed stuff and "backups" (instead of either homebrew or signed stuff only).
So its rather crap as media center, depends on a "java phone-os" and so far has no "native" games that would work without a touchpad. I really fail to see where the appeal is, yet there is hope of this getting big traction and establishing itself as an own platform big enough to matter besides ios, android, PSSuite/Vita, PSN, XBLive, Steam, AppleTV, SmartTV, etc.... but Im rather sceptical about that.
given that most android games are ports from ios, where the significant money is been made I dont see this a very viable option for developers trying to sell stuff. and given how open it is I have little doubt that the first ever custom firmware would allow homebrew, signed stuff and "backups" (instead of either homebrew or signed stuff only).
Silent_Buddha
Legend
So, looks like another ambitious venture capital grab by someone else hyping up a Linux (although this time Android) based gaming console. Seems to pop up about once every 5 years or so with some managing to milk the venture capital investments for longer than others.
Yes. Pretty much every indie game is pirated on the PC. The only thing that changes is whether an official scene group releases it (has DRM to crack) or a non-scene group releases it (with or without DRM to crack).
There's a somewhat smaller impact on indie devs as developement costs are usually 1 or 2 orders of magnitude smaller than AAA titles. Especially for those games that were developed for iOS and later ported to the PC.
And with a price point low enough that traditional buyers can impulse buy them. Some piraters may or may not buy them, but most will just pirate the game as price has very little to do with why they pirate a game in the first place.
Due to the open and easily hackable nature of the console, AAA titles are obviously not going to happen. At least with the PC you have a reasonable gamble that with 100's of millions of PC users, you can hopefully get 500k or more in sales over the lifetime of your product.
How long will it take this to get enough critical mass (say 5-10 million install base) where even with piracy, there will be enough legitimate buyers that you have a reasonable chance to recoup your initial developement investment? It took Apple quite a while to achieve critical mass with iPhone before they actually started to make a profit on their share of app sales. And that was with a closed system that could be a hassle to jailbreak as there was always chance Apple could brick your phone the next time an update came through. The Ouya has nothing to prevent pirating from the moment it is purchased.
Add to that you have to deal with people who may only be interested in this as a cheap media extender with little to no interest in gaming.
Regards,
SB
Yes. Pretty much every indie game is pirated on the PC. The only thing that changes is whether an official scene group releases it (has DRM to crack) or a non-scene group releases it (with or without DRM to crack).
There's a somewhat smaller impact on indie devs as developement costs are usually 1 or 2 orders of magnitude smaller than AAA titles. Especially for those games that were developed for iOS and later ported to the PC.
And with a price point low enough that traditional buyers can impulse buy them. Some piraters may or may not buy them, but most will just pirate the game as price has very little to do with why they pirate a game in the first place.
Due to the open and easily hackable nature of the console, AAA titles are obviously not going to happen. At least with the PC you have a reasonable gamble that with 100's of millions of PC users, you can hopefully get 500k or more in sales over the lifetime of your product.
How long will it take this to get enough critical mass (say 5-10 million install base) where even with piracy, there will be enough legitimate buyers that you have a reasonable chance to recoup your initial developement investment? It took Apple quite a while to achieve critical mass with iPhone before they actually started to make a profit on their share of app sales. And that was with a closed system that could be a hassle to jailbreak as there was always chance Apple could brick your phone the next time an update came through. The Ouya has nothing to prevent pirating from the moment it is purchased.
Add to that you have to deal with people who may only be interested in this as a cheap media extender with little to no interest in gaming.
Regards,
SB
And every music album is pirated, yet they still make them and make money off of them without DRM. I didn't ask if they were pirated. I asked if they were pirated to the point it was not financially viable to make a game in the first place.Silent_Buddha said:
Please provide evidence to back up your claims by the way. Otherwise they are meaningless.
Example:
Preferably multiple peer review studies, but I will settle for a large amount of convincing statistical data provided by non-biased sources.
Once again you've engaged a discussion with a point ambiguously expressed in only five words, meaning I've no idea what you're talking about. Overlay the controls on the TV screen? How does that help you with a touch sensor on the controller? Does the controller have a screen to game on? Then what's the point of connecting to the TV when you effectively have a handheld?
A friend told me last night that you can use a PS3 controller with the ASUS, so I'll give that a go at some point. If that works, using the tablet with a controller, then it'll be interesting to see what games are supporting the controller that Ouya can support out of the box.
scooby_dooby
Legend
I can't really envision an Ouya developer who would not also be deploying their title to Google Play (unless it's a control issue)
So, it's not really a question of whether Ouya can reach critical mass, but whether Ouya combined with Google Play can.
I'm hopeful that they both feed eachother. We might see really strong momentum for the first time in the tablet marker with Nexus 7, which would open the floodgates somewhat for dev's to move over from iOS. Ouya could potentially serve as a catalyst device on top of the existing Google Play momentum.
TurnDragoZeroV2G
Regular
A Podcast Q&A with CEO Julie Uhrman and a Eurogamer interview.
Eurogamer:
Explaining the expected and obvious, from my perspective, but hey....
(reading GAF's thread on Ouya is hilarious. How does the human race get through life without at least a low-frequency BS filter? It's like some of the people there have never seen a marketing piece before.).
EDIT: Joystiq: "Influential indies on the brouhaha around Ouya"
Some nice comments I'm too lazy to quote here.
Eurogamer:
Explaining the expected and obvious, from my perspective, but hey....
(reading GAF's thread on Ouya is hilarious. How does the human race get through life without at least a low-frequency BS filter? It's like some of the people there have never seen a marketing piece before.).
EDIT: Joystiq: "Influential indies on the brouhaha around Ouya"
Some nice comments I'm too lazy to quote here.
Last edited by a moderator:
Billy Idol
Legend
Hm, 99 euros? If there is only one game that interests me...I'll buy it, 99 is a good argument if it offers some rxclusive gaming rxperience...
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
One of the best points of the article is my main problem with the Ouya and my utter disbelief that so many people have bought into this - even the slightest.
And that is the fact that this console appeals to "hardcore" gamers and android users. The main appeal here is that the console is hackable. That's all well and good and it scores great internet nerd points, and that is apparently enough to raise $5 million dollars. But it isn't a viable business model.
Face it, the amount of people that bought the PS3 because it had OtherOS and the amount of people who didn't buy it when Sony wiped it off the PS3 with their firmware update is completely inconsequential to the success or failure of the PS3.
And those people, that same population, represents the entire market for the Ouya.
Good luck with that.
Of course, you're out when you do so. Some half-decent authentication can go a long way. Apple is finding that out as we speak.
MS does a pretty good job on Live. If sales, friends, leader boards, etc are locked to your ID I don't think a lot of people are going to bother with it.
After all, most games are probably going to be in the 5 - 15 bucks range. Maybe some 16 year old wants to pirate that, but I think a lot of OUYA's audience are people who actually care about games and like to see follow-ups too. I know I am, and I don't fit in your analysis of the population.
You can call me optimistic, just as I call articles like this from Eurogamer doom and gloom, but nothing happens unless first a dream.
MS does a pretty good job on Live. If sales, friends, leader boards, etc are locked to your ID I don't think a lot of people are going to bother with it.
After all, most games are probably going to be in the 5 - 15 bucks range. Maybe some 16 year old wants to pirate that, but I think a lot of OUYA's audience are people who actually care about games and like to see follow-ups too. I know I am, and I don't fit in your analysis of the population.
You can call me optimistic, just as I call articles like this from Eurogamer doom and gloom, but nothing happens unless first a dream.
My thoughts exactly. With 500+ dev kits pledged and a 1% hit rate I can see myself buying 5 games already. At 10 bucks for a game that will set me back for the grand total of $150. Big deal.
Totally worth the risk IMO. I've spent way more on high scoring retail games that bored me out of my skull.
They absolutely want AAA titles, and expect it to be possible to sell these for $60. They believe that the reason Android games don't sell for $60 (or more than a tiny fraction of that really) is because they aren't being played on a TV. Here's the exact quote:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/07/99-ouya-wants-to-bust-down-console-gamings-walled-gardens/
ToTTenTranz said:
The 30% claim is correct:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...hrman-on-a-new-breed-of-video-game-console/2/
So basically, OUYA is expecting to make upwards of $18/game for some (presumably very significant) number of games sold. If their business model relies on this type of income then they're probably in trouble.
D
Deleted member 13524
Guest
Probably a mid-term between the 6th generation and the 7th (XBox and X360), but closer to the latest in terms of instruction set, it's a DX9 GPU.
AFAIK, the gpu has 8* 4 MADD pixel shaders and 4* 4 MADD vertex shaders @ 520MHz, the CPU is probably a 1.5GHz quad Cortex A9, and they'll probably use DDR3-1600 (why not? it's cheaper than LPDDR2 and a lot faster too, and it's not like they need the power savings).
Think of what a Geforce 7600GS + Athlon 64 X2 @ ~1.5GHz would do.. it shouldn't be too far off.
Maybe if you take a look at the games that got into Sega Lindbergh you might get a good idea too.
This level of capability is what some "wishful thinkers" were hoping to have on the Wii, as it enables a "similar" kind of visuals to the PS360 as long as it renders with downscaled textures, models and lower resolution, unlike what the Wii is capable of.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
I dunno, out of all the easily or relatively easily hackable consoles (Xbox 1, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, etc...), I can only think of one that did well with regards to sales. The Dreamcast forced Sega out of the console hardware business. The Xbox generated huge losses. The Gamecube was only a monetary success due to how cheap it was to manufacture.
The Wii is the lone standout, but that is probably due almost entirely to targetting the casual crowd and virtually ignore the hardcore crowd.
And all of the above had much larger marketing pushes and more prominent and established games developers than the Ouya.
The Ouya just seems to peg everything that is likely to make them fail and tries to make it seem like those things are what will allow it to succeed. Granted, perhaps they'll have a go at the casual market via games ported from Android. Then again, why would a casual want to play android games on his TV when he can play them on the go on his tablet/phone?
Hopefully it won't follow a fate similar to other off beat consoles like the Phantom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_console#The_Phantom_console ) which promised many of the same things.
Regards,
SB
