OUYA Moving Away from Required Free-to-Try

[programmingswan]

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/03...or-themselves/

Now the company has announced it will no longer require all games to have a free demo attached. Be prepared for regular paid content to start popping up in the Ouya store.

I can't say that I'm exactly enthused about this, but I understand where they are coming from. What are your thoughts?

[RiotingSpectre]

Ouya's Bob Mills says developers have been citing issues like budget, creative direction, and lack of interest in creating demo content.

Then why is it mine and the rest of the consumer's burden to bear because developers are incompetent? Not our fault and now I feel like we're getting punished for something we didn't even do.

[Jeffry84]

I agree with RiotingSpectre, but I have to say that I see the situation from a player's perspective, not a developer's.

[Jayenkai]

From the point of view of a developer who's working far too fast to have to worry about things going horribly wrong, and who doesn't have the time to do any after-sales stuff... Which, admittedly, is pretty much just me....

I'm much happier that people can pay for, then download "the full game" than having to worry about IAP and whether the OUYA store is up and running when the player wants to play, and having to do DRM checks to ensure the thing's really been bought.
If it's, instead, more like iOS, where the player pays for the download, then has it on their system, no matter what, whether their OUYA has Internet connection, or the entire planet's in the middle of a giant nuclear war, and all the player has is their OUYA with no way to communicate with the outside world..... Then I'm MUCH more comfortable with that. I definitely prefer the "pay, own" way of doing things.

[segastardust]

This does diminish some of Ouya's appeal for me personally, but hopefully this will encourage more developers who are hesitant to make an Ouya build of their game to do so. There would be even less work involved now in porting your game from android. Also, we may finally get prices listed in the Discover Store now.

[PerfectWaveGames]

I think smaller developers will still have demos. I know we will. If you're not well known I don't think you'll get many sales unless people can try your game.

If you're a bigger developer, you might be disinclined to rework part of your game incorporate a demo level. So maybe things like GTA Vice City start showing up, as they only have to change the controls and not their sales model.

[Jeffry84]

One of the Ouya's principles was to let the customer at least try the game instead of purchasing blindly unlike on other consoles/devices. It's like giving up a virtue, not a defect.

[Warzard]

One excuse down, what is the next thing devs are going to complain a bout? T3 perhaps? Low user base? Just man up and make your game on OUYA!

[Jon_TWR]

I won't be buying any games that don't have a free demo...the Devs should just put on their big-boy pants and make a free to try portion.

I mean, if they were releasing on XBox Live Arcade (or Indie Games), they'd be required to have a demo. I feel like devs who are complaining about this are just shitty devs.

James: It's not that complicated...have a demo, with an IAP that unlocks the full game. BAM, done!

[Kaimega]

.. This is a bit of a turn off for me. The entire point of the "Free to try" thing is to see if the game is right for you before you go ahead and buy it, and NOT be swindled out of your money like with the current players in the Console world. If any of these games currently did not have that notion, I would not have bought a single thing, because I don't know how they would play. Same goes for other Android games and whatevernot. Never bought a single thing from Google play or wherever because I wanted to try it before I spent my money.. you know to make sure it worked and played well..

There are so many half-assed/incomplete games that have been on Discover as of late where people have actually PAID for it to find out the game has been incomplete and abandoned, never to be fixed/updated again (Crest of War comes to mind, 8bit Ninja as well). Imagine those games having a price on them. Buy before you play...

I speak as a developer as well as a consumer in this aspect. If you make a great game, people WILL buy it. If your game looks good and plays like shit, people will not buy it. If it is dull as hell, people will not buy it. It is NOT the consumers fault that you (the developer) game isn't selling. It is YOURS because YOU did not make it engaging enough.

Square Enix's Final Fantasy 3. Polished Piece of work, engaged you into the game, made you want more when you went through it. I saw the 15$ price tag come up and bought it immediately. I was engaged.

Shadow Blade, this one just came out recently. Again, polished piece of work. Left you wanting more. it was ENGAGING.

Ravensword Shadowlands. This dev didn't like the free to try model and preferred people bought it outright.. this game was unoptimized, laggy, and boring. Who would WANT to buy it? I know many did because it looked to be great, and most others didn't because the demo didn't offer alot (neither did the full game imo).

There aren't many OUYA review sites to get a second opinion, and Google's play store is so stupidly fragmented that you cannot go by what anyone says. All you can really do is trust those screenshots and hope it works and is fun. That is something I did NOT sign up for.


@James - it is as simple as the following psuedo code

function onGameStart()
{
//check if purcahsed
purchased = false
}

if level ==3 && purchased == false {
//put up IAP
}