Ouya may not be dead, but its long history of stumbles makes success unlikely

[Another World]

Perhaps there needs to be a "SALE" section on the discover store.

This is a very valid point that I have been trying to drive home to OUYA via Twitter for the past few days. I, like you, wait for sales before rushing into experiences I am not 100% sold on. When a sale hits, and I see something offered for $2-5 below its former price, I'll often jump on it and make it part of my back catalog. It is these impulse buys that make up a majority of my software purchases. I recently grabbed iTTLE DEW ($3.40?) and Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge ($6.99) because of sales or developer discounts. I found out about these things by keeping up with forums and Twitter feeds. If I had relied on OUYA to keep me informed then I would not have made these purchases. It does not seem like asking to much when requesting a Sale/Discount section for the Discover store. As they make a majority of their money off software, wouldn't it make sense to trigger more impulse buys from their consumers?

-Another World

[Hugo]

I won't speak for OUYA as I've always been confounded by their marketing, but what I can tell you is that developers are the ones who make the call on when their game/app is going to be on sale. As discounts tend to be relatively infrequent, they may not feel as though an entire section is warranted for the occasional sale.

[Killswitch]

Occasional sale or not. A developer should be able to click a few buttons and then it shows up for sale or something like that for the duration of the sale. Steam has a sale section which does very well and it's almost the same concept. Sometimes you're not sure but when Final Fantasy dropped, people jumped at it, same with the others. It's not like that section would be hurting anyone or taking up a ton of space like 10 playlists or whatever the number is. But the section benefits developers and consumers. We find out about price drops and random sales through tweets and whatnot or what if someone misses the post about a price drop on a forum. They aren't always posted by the @playouya account or in newsletters so it's a way to help out both sides.

[MegaManV]

"Why would I buy an Ouya when I can just download the same games in the app store on my phone?"

*slapping head*

This is why I keep saying the Ouya needs more exclusives and why I'm working on one.

Back on topic: Personally I think it's still too early to say where exactly Ouya stands right now.

[Failrunner]

Why do you even care about this kind of articles? Bla bla, controller lag, bla bla, device to play Android games, bla bla, nonsenses.

It seems like hate speech for me.

I think you assumed this was just a negative review because a lot of those get posted here. It's not another review by an Xbox gamer.

[Schizophretard]

Pretty sure he is talking about the articles

And he is right, every Article that has come out since this OUYA everywhere initiative has basically said the same thing: "OUYA is dead". OUYA is still bringing games to DISCOVER, they are branching (not replacing) their software to other hardware. They are still making new hardware as well. Things may have been a bit quick, but think about it, with the amount of collective hate on the internet, this could have been done in 2 more years and still get the same "OUYA is dead" crap it is getting. Places like the Verge and Kotaku (other articles claiming OUYA is dead) have been trying to artificially kill it since launch.

It isn't that OUYA has to get in front of the media, they had said what they said, but as usual gaming "journalists" only pick what they want to write about. They only hear what they want to hear. Remember when FTG fund was going on (still is but either just before, or just after the rewrite), and one of the reporters from either the Verge or somewhere else wanted to interview the team to see if they can slip up and openly state FTG was a scam (when it obviously wasn't)? No matter how OUYA spins it, regardless of PR, the hate mongering is there, and it isn't going anywhere.

To be honest, if it isn't coming from OUYAs blog, I don't want to bother with anymore of these articles, because it is hard to tell if it is unbiased, biased for, or biased against OUYA. Most of the time it is the latter.

I want to try to explain what doesn't make sense to me about them branching out and still somehow making the console. If this branching out happened later it would kind of make sense but right now it doesn't at all to me. It isn't about an arbitrary time scale like two years, five years, etc. but about the console becoming successful first, it everywhere already, and then OUYA branching out to everywhere else that they haven't reached with the console like Nintendo branching out to make the Game Boy. In other words, I can see it after OUYA is already an established console company and branching out before that seems like it would make OUYA becoming an established console company less likely. If it is less likely then it seems like the OUYA console is more likely to die. I'm just struggling to see how a company branching out from one thing that they are not successful at yet will make them more likely to be successful at it later. I'm struggling to understand how it could even be considered a branching out if the branching out happens before a success has happened yet from the thing it is branching out of. Instead of a branching out from the console it looks more like abandoning it to move somewhere else to find success. So, I'll explain it and then please help me see it the other way because I'm just not seeing it at all.

When OUYA Everywhere was announced enough console sales and a big enough users base didn't exist yet. Most people don't even know the OUYA even exists because there hasn't been any big ad campaign or anything like that. But if everyone did know that it existed before OUYA Everywhere then there would be more potential to move consoles because that would be the only way to play OUYA games. But now when the big ad campaign or whatever other things that take place to get most people to know about the OUYA eventually happens they won't know an OUYA that they can only play by buying an OUYA console. There would be nothing really exclusive about the OUYA other than its case and maybe other things to do with the hardware like maybe other hardware won't be open hardware for developing and hacking, having a low price point, having a year warranty, etc. In other words, the entire library and all of the software will no longer be a selling point to move consoles because they can get it all on other devices. It would only be hardware related selling points and therefore most of OUYA's future user base may end up being people on other devices with OUYA's console user base still being as small if not smaller than it is now.

If OUYA becomes successful everywhere else as being an app store for other devices then even on the software/library side the console will suffer. OUYA sells cheap hardware at a low price point and makes money off of the software but all these other devices will mostly be from companies that make money off of the hardware and use other people's software to move their hardware. So, all these other devices would be "OUYAs plus other things". They will have other app stores, they will have Netflix, etc. Before if all these other developers of apps, Netflix, etc. wanted to get to OUYA's user base there was only one way to do it. That way was porting to Discover. So, before Discover had the potential to be "OUYAs plus other things" but now there will be devices that are already "OUYAs plus other things" before the OUYA itself is. This will make it less likely that the OUYA would become "OUYAs plus other things". If most of OUYA's user base already has an OUYA capable device for Netflix then why would Netflix be ported to Discover? Wouldn't it be kind of redundant to port it into Discover if most of OUYA's user base already has Netflix on their OUYA capable device? Even if they did port it wouldn't the incentive still be as low as it is today because OUYA's console user base would still be small in comparison to the rest of OUYA's user base?

Right now I have an OUYA and a ROKU box. My hope is that eventually I won't need a ROKU box because eventually the OUYA will become an all-in-one unconsole that can do everything a ROKU box can do and more. For me that is a defining attribute of the OUYA becoming a successful console. When OUYA becomes the only box I need to hook up to my TV because everything I need is in Discover then that is success. That is also success for the OUYA itself because if OUYA is making that 30% cut off of everything I could ever need then that would move consoles. It wouldn't just move them but allow OUYA to upgrade their specs higher than other devices and still maintain that $99 price point because they are making so much money off of that 30% cut. For an example, lets say that the OUYA already has most of everything I and others would need out of the Tegra 3, the OUYA is advertised, is known by the majority of the population, OUYAs are flying off of the shelves, and OUYA is making a killing off of that 30% cut. Then wouldn't it be easy for OUYA to sell OUYA 2.0 with a K1 and other higher specs at $99 because instead of a ROKU box, similar devices, other Android devices for TVs, devices to plug up to your TV to make it a smart TV, etc. the device to buy would be an OUYA 2.0? Wouldn't a scenario like that pretty much wipe out any competition for devices that you hook into that HDMI port other than devices that play your discs like the Big 3 consoles, DVD players, Blu-ray players, etc.? And with a scenario like that wouldn't the OUYA iteration that would exist by the time the Big 3's next generation comes around be a big competitor to them and put them in a position to compete with the OUYA because there is now the Big 4 with one of them being known as THE Open Console? That would be a very interesting and game changing scenario. It would probably be something like the last 2 video game crashes and result in a paradigm shift in the way that people think of console gaming. In other words, it would cause the revolution to be televised. Granted, OUYA is no where close to that yet. But if OUYA didn't do this OUYA Everywhere thing, stayed the course, and let the momentum build up then maybe just maybe wouldn't something close to that be a possibly in the future? Instead what looks more likely is by then I will have an OUYA 6.0 or whatever next to a ROKUYA with the ROKUYA being more of the all-in-one unconsole that the OUYA is suppose to be. Which box would people most likely choose to be their all-in-one unconsole? The ROKUYA. Which device would most likely die? The console.

OUYA Everywhere just looks like the only likely result possible is the console no where. Even giving OUYA the benefit of the doubt that they won't flip flop again and will keep their promise to continue making OUYAs, will it really become the all-in-one unconsole that the dream is all about? Would it really be something worth buying other than as a cheap dev kit? To me it looks like what it would look like for Netflix to start selling a box that only plays Netflix while there is "Netflix Everywhere" or like Google to start selling a YouTube box with a webcam while there is "YouTube Everywhere". I can see myself asking,"Why did I buy this OUYA 8.0 when everyone else is getting better OUYAs everywhere else that look more like the all-in-one unconsole that the OUYA is suppose to be? I bought the name brand OUYA and yet it feels like the generic brand! I own the actual console but the rest of OUYA's users have clones that are better! WTF?!" with people answering,"You only paid $99. You should have bought a ROKUYA or MOJOUYA. Or you could just hook up your PC or phone to your TV and use the OUYA app. I don't see the problem. The OUYA is just a dev kit. You got what you paid for."

However, I'm willing to admit that I could be completely wrong about this and the OUYA really can become the all-in-one unconsole with OUYA Everywhere helping that happen somehow. I could be overlooking something that actually makes this a better scenario to somehow make the console more likely to be successful more than if OUYA kept the software exclusive to the OUYA. If so then someone please explain this scenario that I'm not seeing where an app store that goes everywhere won't just turn the OUYA console into a box next to ROKUYAs, MOJOUYAS, Smart OUYA TVs, OUYA PCs, etc, that makes it look like just a cheap dev kit next to them. Show me how Discover would get all these things that OUYA's user base will already have on all these devices. Show me that out of all "OUYA Everywheres" the OUYA itself will be the best one to buy out of all of them because it will have more than all of them included right in Discover. Show me that the OUYA will be known as a console company instead of a company with an app store for other devices. Show me that in the end, even if it is years from now, the results will look very close to what comes to mind from the OUYA Kickstarter. Show me that this hyped up open new kind of video game console with a big dream won't just end up being a bunch of hype and the dream just being a dream. Show me that OUYA Everywhere will make it more likely instead of less likely that the OUYA console will be much more alive than it is today 10 years from now and people take it seriously enough to consider it one of the "Big 4". Show me that 10 years from now any developer from an indie developer up to the big AAA publishers would be completely out of their minds to not put their games/apps on the OUYA console.

I understand that those are some far fetched goals and future expectations that were already unlikely from the start but show me how OUYA Everywhere makes them even just a little bit less far fetched and just a little bit more likely things to expect. Because to me this doesn't look like OUYA is branching out from the success of the console, or a way to get more users because they can't keep up with the demand for OUYAs, or anything like that. It looks more like they gave up on trying to move consoles with their software/library because they are struggling to do it and now moved to Plan B where they are just trying to move their software/library to other people's devices because it is the only thing they can think of to increase their user base. OUYA may not be dead but it looks like a desperate move to prevent death. Instead of OUYA Everywhere, a better plan to me seems like OUYA Marketing Everywhere to get the actual console everywhere because if people have the choice between buying a console with the OUYA store in it or a box with a mall in it with one of those stores being the OUYA store then they will buy the one with the mall. If everyone buys the one with the mall then the console eventually dies. It wouldn't have much to offer because Discover is suppose to be the store that has everything in it that you can get from the mall but it won't. OUYA may not be dead but it looks like the console is on the way there. And this is coming from someone very biased in OUYA's favor. I'm rooting for the home team but it looks like the coach is telling them to give the ball to the other team.

This looks exactly the same to me as if Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo put their entire libraries everywhere. They are already successful console companies but if they did that I would be convinced that they are in the process of ditching their consoles and becoming software companies. Console companies just don't put their entire libraries on other people's devices. They try to have exclusives and an exclusive identity to compete with each other. How much more should I get the same impression from a console company doing the exact same thing before the world even knows it exists? If the entire library will no longer be exclusive to the OUYA then the only thing it has got going for it is a pretty looking case with phone parts in it. It doesn't even have that because those same phone parts can be put in other cases by other companies. So, it is just a pretty case. You can't have a successful console company with just a pretty case. You have to put something unique in it. Isn't that what the Free The Games Fund is about? Isn't it about putting unique games in the case to sell it? So, why is OUYA spending $1,000,000 to sell M.O.J.O.s and any other device that becomes part of OUYA Everywhere? If these "exclusives" are going to end up being on everyone else's devices then what is the point? The developers could already do that. The only bright side is that it is more likely to get more developers to join the fund because after they agree to not put their games on other Android devices OUYA is going to do it anyway. OUYA wants to put their "exclusives" everywhere. In Discover the "Only On OUYA" section should be renamed to "The Only On Everything Everywhere Section Like The Rest Of Discover". This isn't how you get from OUYA 1.0 to OUYA 10.0 and beyond. When OUYA says that they will continue to make consoles then how am I suppose to believe them when they are telling me this while they are holding a gun in their mouth?

[Ant]

holy shit sweet essay lol

[rushmore]

Ouya CEO stated their focus will be on the software side, so seems an issue of semantics. The device hardware from a business model exclusivity standpoint appears dead. The install base is not there to make it work. They are now trying to spin this into something positive. Considering the industry is already adding game pad support and Samsung and others are adding driver support in firmware, why would a dev not target Play market rather than a very constrained one? Unless being subsidized, it makes zero economic sense not to focus on Play market.

Enjoy your Ouyas, but do not expect an Ouya 2. They have to pay their creditors back before they will ever get money for another device to be made. Contract manufacturers and compenent suppliers need to be paid. Also their own employees and G&A costs. Venture capital to burn? The investors will probably think otherwise.

[Kaimega]

Ouya CEO stated their focus will be on the software side, so seems an issue of semantics. The device hardware from a business model exclusivity standpoint appears dead. The install base is not there to make it work. They are now trying to spin this into something positive. Considering the industry is already adding game pad support and Samsung and others are adding driver support in firmware, why would a dev not target Play market rather than a very constrained one? Unless being subsidized, it makes zero economic sense not to focus on Play market.

Enjoy your Ouyas, but do not expect an Ouya 2. They have to pay their creditors back before they will ever get money for another device to be made. Contract manufacturers and compenent suppliers need to be paid. Also their own employees and G&A costs. Venture capital to burn? The investors will probably think otherwise.

They ARE making an OUYA 2. It WILL be coming out this year (around summer, perhaps?). Devs got an email on this, and there is a blog post on their site about this as well. They have also posted on Reddit, and have had an interview about it.

[Hydrus]

They ARE making an OUYA 2. It WILL be coming out this year (around summer, perhaps?). Devs got an email on this, and there is a blog post on their site about this as well. They have also posted on Reddit, and have had an interview about it.

What makes you so sure? Do you trust OUYA's words as much as to say that it will come out this year, without hitting any obstacles or minds being changed? It's not the fist time that has happened, right? They can advertise the OUYA 2 release as much as they want, as day's go by their actions prove that there's less of a chance that an OUYA 2 will come out. That dream or principle of having developers build games for one OUYA, one piece of hardware is a false dream. Nothing can assure you that an OUYA 2 isn't also a false dream.

Only time can tell whether OUYA 2 will exist or not.