For me it was somewhat the opposite. I have been a console gamer my whole life. Out of the Big 3 that exist today, Nintendo used to be my favorite. Well, it used to be the only one out of the 3 that existed. Then Sony entered the console market. It added more variety of games and became somewhat of a new favorite just for adding the new variety. Around that time FPS started getting more popular. On the N64 GoldenEye 007 was what we would play and if we wanted something more dark and serious then on the PS1 we would play Doom. The same with Mario Kart 64 vs. Twisted Metal. Then Microsoft entered the market. They failed to ever sell me a console. Unlike Sony I didn't see anything new. The XBOX seemed like another PlayStation, they were competing for the same gamers, and Nintendo was pushed to the side.

It seemed similar to how Nintendo and SEGA were competing but there was a shift from the more cartoon goofy games to dark and serious FPS interactive movies. Games were already headed in that direction but before it was mainly Nintendo and Sony competing so it seemed to balance out with more variety. But when Microsoft entered the market it seemed like two Sonys against one Nintendo. The dark and serious FPS interactive movies seemed to shift from being added to the variety to dominating. Then Nintendo released the Wii with motion controls. Not that there is anything wrong with motion controls and I own a Wii but they seemed like a gimmick to me to make Nintendo stand out against the other two. It also seemed backwards to me because Nintendo was more of a traditional brand. When I think of Nintendo I think of sitting on a couch with a controller in my hand. The motion controls being the main controls felt like if the NES's main controllers were the Zapper, Power Glove, and/or other more interactive accessories. It seemed backwards to me because it was the other two that were making the interactive movies. I would think that the games that seem like they are focusing on realistic graphics, deep stories, etc. that makes it seem like gaming is shifting from playing to acting in a movie would have the more interactive controls because if you are pretending to be on a Hollywood set then you might as well be standing up acting it out with motion controls. It seemed as backwards to me as if I was hooked into a virtual reality rig like on Lawnmower Man but playing with a controller instead of reaching out to interact with my hands. So, gaming seemed to shift more towards acting in movies instead of playing games but the one console still mostly focused on playing games had its main controls focused on physically acting things out while the other two focused mainly on controllers. So, a welcomed variety was added but ,since more traditional console gaming was pushed more to the side with two Sonys, the addition of variety started to feel like it was a subtraction and all backwards. I could either act out interactive movies with controllers or play games by physically interacting with motion controls. WTF?

Anyway, I was already into retro gaming because I have always been a console gamer but the Big 3 started to push me away because I just wanted to sit with a controller and play a variety of games without one genre/type of games dominating to the point that playing them is considered "hardcore" but playing others are "casual". I want to play it all to the hardcore like console gamers always have. It started around the time of the PS2 and really hit me with the PS3. I have watched more movies with my PS3 than I have played games on it because I am so bored with it. Consoles stopped being exciting.

So, my retro gaming became even more serious. I started adding games to my old consoles, buying new consoles, etc. Why hope and pray that the Big 3 will provide fun again when I already know fun games and there are countless games like them in the past that I haven't played yet? As I got deeper into my hobby I discovered games I never knew about, I discovered consoles that I missed when I was growing up, I discovered that people were still creating games for them(indie?), people were modifying their consoles, people were creating new accessories, people were working on emulators, people were finding prototypes of games that no one has played before, etc. Consoles were exciting again.

Then OUYA came along with a new kind of open video game console that looks like all of that centered around one console. Gaming wasn't just exciting again but it was coming from a new exciting console. You don't have to wait until the console is after market to get homebrew games(indie?) because that is already welcomed along with any other games, you can modify the console while still under warranty, it has emulators, it welcomes experimenting with all kinds of genres, the games are cheap, etc. It is everything I wish the Big 3 would be in one console. It is like a modern retro console.

So, OUYA succeeded where the Big 3 failed and created a console that matched my gaming habits. I was always a console gamer and I still don't own a smart phone. So, they didn't have to switch me from touch gaming to console gaming. I was already there. They just had to provide what the Big 3 was lacking. Also, I think I'm probably in the minority here of not owning a smart phone and this being the first device I owned based on Android. So, I don't have any of the misconceptions of phone games on a TV and things like,"This game is already on phones." are irrelevant to me. Comparing them to phones and looking at phone ports seems exactly the same to me as comparing them to PCs and PC ports. That is completely irrelevant to me. Being able to already play a game on a phone doesn't seem like a good argument to me because I'm not a phone gamer. I'm a console gamer and OUYA is a console. Games have always been ported to consoles from computers, arcade machines, etc. Saying that many of these games I could find on a phone is like when someone could have said the Atari 2600 was for playing arcade games on TV. That wouldn't have worked on me then even though the ports weren't as good as the arcade games most of the time. The only difference is that these ports can be identical but improved on by adding controllers and designed for the big screen. So, if someone points out that a game isn't exclusive to the OUYA because it is already on phones or even on PC then so what? I'm a console gamer. I'm interested in console exclusives. I compare it to the Big 3. Unless the Big 3 has the same games at the same price, with their consoles at the same price, with these games being their main games, with their consoles being open consoles that welcome variety, etc. where they look like they are competing with the OUYA by trying to be a better one then the OUYA is full of win when I see the Big 3 full of fail. And phones and PCs are completely irrelevant because they are different categories of gaming. So, OUYA already matched gaming habits I had before I even knew it existed and the Big 3, phones, PC, etc. have failed at trying to change them. I'm a console gamer, I'm a retro gamer, I want to sit back with a controller and play a huge variety of games on the big screen, I want an open console that welcomes everyone to accomplish that, and even though I'm a minority I believe that to be in appearance only.

Unless most of my generation is dead then there are millions of people that remember the golden age of console gaming with the nostalgia to be kids again and enjoy consoles again. The kids don't remember it but consoles aren't foreign to them and they are playing games on their phones that have a retro style that once wasn't foreign to consoles. The games that they are enjoying on their phones I'm experiencing for the first time on my OUYA but they aren't completely my first time because they are like what console games used to be but newer. No wonder why I'm enjoying my OUYA so much. So, the generation gap isn't necessarily the type of games but what they are being played on because the other consoles are so closed that they only make it to phones. Therefore those millions of people from my generation would be very attracted to the OUYA and they aren't kids anymore. They have money and responsibilities. A cheap console with cheap games that are the types of games we miss would be an easy sale if my generation knew and understood the OUYA. Then after they buy them their kids would say,"Dad, you like the type of games I do on my phone." Then they would have games to enjoy together. It would be just like when my father was playing the Atari 2600 with me but a new generation but it would be like all retro consoles wrapped into one. The only gaming habits it would change is changing console gaming back to being a family activity where it isn't only about interactive movies but a variety again that would be enough variety to appeal to all console gamers.

I believe it will happen. If OUYA doesn't do it then someone will. It may not be tomorrow but if in 15 years open consoles aren't common and people are still paying hundreds of dollars for the Big 3's closed consoles then I would be very surprised. I'm expecting things to evolve more towards something like Steam Machines taking the place of high end console gaming and microconsoles to provide the low end. Or maybe even some combination of the two in the middle. But even the low end will be better than today. I will have a little console with thousands of games that I will love that would have more computing power than the laptop I'm typing on. And I will be explaining to 15 year olds that are babies now about what it was like watching this shift happen from closed consoles to open consoles where democratization of gaming caused console gaming to match people's gaming habits instead of the other way around where the closed consoles dictate what people can play.

So, OUYA didn't really participate because I was already there but OUYA came to accept the metal because there was no other console company around that could.