There are actually a lot of niche Android devices that don't have Google Play at all, or that have it and it turns out to kida suck for that device (hi MOJO!). Set-top boxes of any sort are a prime example. I think that initially we'll see OE turn up more often on devices where Play is not a strong feature than on devices where it's the star of the show.Originally Posted by Killswitch
The problem is if Google Play is available, it's still the primary game source. Unless some bigger better content is available on Ouya and not everywhere else but the problem for developers in that case is they'd like to feed themselves and/or family or feed their Mountain Dew addiciton, so until Ouya becomes bigger, it's hard to stay Ouya only.
Timmy just posted another box in the general sections that's a T4 with 4k and costs $105. Has Google Play of course but it's in the price range where it's cost effective unlike MOJO, SHIELD and this beast.
Last edited by Killswitch; 04-14-2014 at 05:51 AM.
Only way I think smart tvs and OUYA on tvs will work is if they go with a modular design.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/07/p...ra-moto-maker/
That would be a good concept for smart TVs, seeing as how the manufacturers don't roll out updates very often. We could update our own gear with new software and hardware, keeping our televisions relevant for much longer.
Kind of odd that is touts 4k which I and many others don't have or need yet but doesn't have wireless AC which I do use and would likely be needed to stream that 4k content.
So i'm guessing Ouya is trying to distribute their playstore ala Google Play to box-tops in addition to pursuing Ouya 2 in the future?
I get it, but I dunno if Ouya has enough exposure/name-recognition to do this consistently.
This is good news for the Ouya. As it is the Ouya has the largest portfolio of Android game-controller games. It wouldn't surprise me if Nvidia's Shield 2 doesn't include Ouya games as well. It would be a huge shot in the arm for a game system that is lacking in the game department.
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I think what's misunderstood is that OUYA is a platform. Always has been. Yes.. the Kickstarter pushed it as a "new kind of console", but all consoles are inherently platforms. Emulation (a popular use of OUYA) has proven that consoles are platforms that don't have to exist as individual devices to be functional. Except, instead of some forced underground approach to emulation, OUYA is directly supporting it on compatible hardware they didn't design. It's akin to a fantasy situation where Microsoft announces an official X-Box One emulation mode on certain compatible Windows 8 devices. It doesn't diminish the quality of the platform or the official device. It just widens the market to overlap to some PC users. X-Box devs would always need to design for the unit to make sure the main use case is the best experience.
But back to the OUYA.. it has always run off of commodity, off the shelf parts, and that was always their strategy. Before the official devices were released, devs were basically instructed to make games for the Nexus 7, which would be more or less the same experience with a little modification. There's nothing in it, other than the software and specifications to build software on, that's special about it that separates it from other devices out there.
Going forward, OUYA is going to be more of a specification than a proprietary device. Since that's basically what it's always been. And that's not a bad thing.
But that platform specification will be realized into a dev unit that's accessible to everyone to keep price under control. So there will always be an OUYA branded device. Other than controlling price, it's critical for one to exist as a reference unit to control fragmentation. But in terms of the general end-user market, it's not critical or even that important that every single OUYA customer owns an official OUYA device. And in fact, if the user already has an OUYA Everywhere compatible device, it's consumer friendly to not require that user to shell out another $100 to play OUYA games by forcing them to buy a device. I know some feel they're no longer part of some special club by the device hardware itself becoming less important than the platform, but this approach is a lot more accessible or "open" (to again use that over-used term). It plays into the strategy.
What OUYA is doing is trying to develop a affordable TV-Gaming standard. Like a Blu-ray or DVD kind of thing for games with an evolving specification. Steam seems like they're aiming to do the same thing, but for the high end expensive market, and they're not taking the issue of fragmentation nearly as seriously as OUYA is by having some sort of referential standard. So in essence, Valve seems less interested in creating any sort of standard console experience more than creating a slightly dumbed-down PC-gaming rig that focuses on getting people into Steam rather than Window's app store (which, as I recall, was Newel's main motivation for the Linux/Steambox initiative).
And that's alright too, other than not solving the specification interpretation problems that plague most main stream consumers and is still a barrier of entry into PC gaming for a fair amount of consumers.
But what it most importantly boils down to is ... Having OUYA on compatible devices gets OUYA wider adoption nearly for free (in fact, better than free. Odds are OUYA is making something off the licensing).
Adoption is by far the biggest problem with OUYA at the moment. All of the other issues people bring up are merely symptoms of this problem. But if OUYA gets wide adoption, it will move toward solving the sales problems, which will solve the developer attraction problem, which will software quality problems, which will solve the perception problems. As a side effect, the OUYA Everywhere device manufacturers will surely promote the OUYA capability, which gains a positive visibility (something that's also been a struggle).
It also puts some of the burden of hardware manufacturing on other companies. It also opens up the possibility of partnerships with hardware OEMS that may do a better job than OUYA at managing that process. Hardware is really difficult to make money on when you're a small company with many avenues of product development. As OUYA and many of it's customers discovered, physical goods are always subject to quality control problems. And they're amplified if you're smaller, inexperienced and "less influential" (for lack of a better term). This opens the door to better official OUYA devices in the future, even if OUYA is not involved beyond defining the specs and slapping their label on it.
Last edited by arcticdog; 04-16-2014 at 04:39 AM.
Actually, OUYA has made a slight strategy change here. A few months ago, they were saying the plan was always for the console to "go away" at some point and become an abstract platform. Now they are saying a physical reference console will always be part of the picture. Somehow I don't think that's a change people will complain about, though.
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I think we are getting hung up on terminology.
OUYA as an official console may go away but they will produce a cheap no frills reference device for devs that can also be used by players.
However if people want bells and whistles they can purchase other devices with OUYA on it.
At least, this is how I think it's going to be.
Which is fine with me actually.
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