"I have no use for an Ouya."
This is the Ouya's biggest problem. The biggest reasons to get an Ouya are for the emulators and to play Android games on your TV. In any of my Ouya coverage videos, I get comments daily from people pointing out that they've been running emulators on their PCs for years and they can easily hook up their phone/tablet to their TV if they really wanted to play android games. This is this perception that Android games aren't real games, and so the stigma of Ouya being entirely based around Android games leaves people with the concept of Angry Birds on your TV and nothing beyond that.
What can Ouya do about that? Promotion. There should be advertising through youtube and social media that Ouya has many great games and highlight them. The reason people think they have no use for an Ouya is because they think they have no interest in Ouya, which is based on ignorance.
"Ouya has a bad reputation."
The is only true because a-holes like Rich from ReviewTechUSA make wildly inaccurate claims and then Ouya does nothing to counter them even thought its all nonsense. It's true that Ouya had initial problems with controllers not syncing, lagging and buttons getting stuck, but that just doesn't happen to retail systems and Ouya hasn't been informing people of that.
"Ouya has been mismanaged."
Yeah, but not as badly as Hyperkin mismanaged the Retron5, or Sony with the PS3 when it launched. This is recoverable as long as people see Ouya has been and continues to make efforts to improve.
"There are better games on other consoles"
This is in fact, true, but only because of the massive resource and talent differences between indie devs and massive game dev companies. Let's not even talk about the hardware differences. I feel people who point this out are like people at a car show who say "meh, none of these can fly. I like planes".
"Ouya is dead"
Only because assholes like Rich from ReviewTechUSA make idiotic videos proclaiming the Ouya is "doomed" and other such words. Ouya isn't dead. In fact I would say that most of its best games have come out in the last six months and show no signs of stopping. So no, Ouya isn't dead. Ouya Inc needs to promote their games heavily and in doing so, this notion would go away.
"Ouya games can be found elsewhere".
This is true, and I actually think this is a great idea. I recently bought a Mojo and after setting it up, I've come to absolutely love it (although the Mojo CNTRLR has a truly awful dpad). I think what people mean is that they don't need an Ouya or the Ouya discover store for Android games. The majority of games on the Ouya Discover Store are also on Google Play and Steam. So there's little reason for someone to be interested only in Ouya's discover store. The solution is more exclusives, but tha'ts not gonna happen. Why would a dev choose to only sell their game on Ouya Discover Store when they could also sell it on Google Play and Steam and make far more money?
I don't think there is a solution to this. Discover will always play second fiddle to Google Play. Always.
"Ouya has poor performance."
This is simply not true. When games are bad on Ouya, it's because they were poorly designed to begin with. Take Giana Sisters on Android. It's quite simply a bad port of the DS original. It doesn't matter what device you play Giana Sisters Android on, it'll be crap everywhere. There are some games that struggle a bit with the Ouya's lowly Tegra 3/1GB limitations, but not enough to hindler anything to the point where I'd consider it unplayable or something. Unless you're talking about side loaded apps of course. But those aren't Ouya games and can't rightly count.
"Ouya doesn't have any good games."
NONSENSE! Ouya has a lot of great games! It also has a lot of bad games. But know what else has bad games? Every other system on the planet. Ouya Inc should promote the best games on the Discover Store to show people that yes, Ouya in fact does have many excellent games.
Okay, with that said, I'll move on to the points that article writer made on how OUya can improve.
#1 More Ouya & More Customers - Ouya must foot the bill on some premium titles.
I absolutely agree. The best way to spur sales, interest and ownership of the Ouya is for it to have more premium games. and they need to be Ouya Discover Store exclusive so people need to either have an Ouya or an Ouya Everywhere device like the Mojo. Equally important to that is that Ouya then needs to promote this fact. Social media, youtube, print and even tv ads. Let people know you're serious about Ouya as a mainstream platform and not a curiosity for indie gamers.
That's also a huge number of Ouya owners who already bought an Ouya and use it SOLELY to play emulators. Promote the dozens of high quality retro style games on Ouya so the users already have an Ouya but haven't tried any of the games will have a reason to check out the discover store and maybe find other games they're interested in there as well.
#2 Get Back On Message & Stop The Apology Tour
Yes. As I've been saying, Ouya needs to promote their stuff. Not remain silent/keep apologizing for earlier mistakes.
#3 Julie Needs to Tell EVERYONE That OUYA's Not Dead.
This is such an obvious statement I don't understand why it is that she hasn't been doing this constantly let alone at all. Again, just promote the Ouya!
#4 Fix The controller & Let People Know It's Fixed
This has already happened, unless the writer means improve the controller. I like the Ouya Controller for the most part. Its got a good design, good thumbsticks, buttons and a good dpad. But it also has pretty crappy shoulder triggers and lacks basic Start and Select buttons. Its amusing when games like ittle dew make tongue-in-cheek jokes about the controller not having a start button asking "what kind of bootleg controller is this?" but the point is that Ouya lacks basic buttons competitors have. Contrast this against the Mojo CNTRLR which not only has start and select but also five additional media buttons and that controller is automatically far better for emulators and other games where those additional buttons can be mapped to specific purposes.
And Ouya wouldn't even need to change the hardware to introduce a newly designed controller with the proper number of face buttons. Just look at Microsoft with its initial huge and pretty awful original Xbox controller. In 2003 they released the Controller S, which was the same but far, far better. Ouya could and should do the same.
#6 Talk More About OUYA as a Business
Again fits into that Ouya needs to promote more.
#7 Get Rid of the *Credit Card Requirement
Absolutely. I don't mind this, but that's because I'm an adult. There are a lot of teenagers who I think would be interested in the Ouya because its affordable to them at just $99, but then the creditcard requirement makes the whole effort for naught. Let people pay through paypal or just directly through their debit cards.
#8 No News Is Better Than Bad News, But Not When You're OUYA.
This. 1000% this.
Why isn't Ouya promoting it? Why isn't it talking about the platform? Why is there no news about Ouya 2? Why why why. This guy put it perfectly. No news is worse than bad news when it comes to the Ouya.
#9 Make OUYA Everywhere (in process)
This is such a good idea and one of the reasons I really wanted a Mojo. But the full Ouya Discover Store library should be here, not just most titles. Keep working on this and make this better.
The Clock is Ticking
And that's the bottom line isn't it? Ouya needs to fix these problems now or the problems with it will be irreversible. Ouya isn't doing anything terribly unique - a micro console that plugs into the tv and works with a controller and plays Android games. There are already several devices that can do that and soon there will also be the Forge TV and more devices like that in the future. If Ouya doesn't want to become the next Jaguar or 3DO, they need to address the problems now.
Originally Posted by Satoshi_Matrix
Here's my thoughts on the article's ports.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks