Indie: Ouya vs Xbox One & PS4

[XanXic]

So when comparing the OUYA against the big consoles, particularly with respect to indie devs, you're just going to have to accept that you will have a different pool of developers and therefore games on the marketplace. It's comparing apples to oranges, neither is any better or worse though, so support the ones you personally enjoy.

Yeah it feels like Ouya's becoming peoples first step console. Try something out on it. Make it. Release to android, ios. And then move on up the line if you can. While that means you get that super awesome game first it's only temporary and since hardly anyone is being ouya exclusive long term kind of kills the draw from a gaming standpoint. Towerfall sort of is doing this, he's putting it on PC and going to keep going on up the line if he can. But that also means established indies aren't going to bother with it. It doesn't make sense when your working on limited resources and time to develop a separate port on a lower end console with a small market.

I think the PS4 will be a fine channel for indie games. Pretty much every indie game I've been following heavily ended up at E3 and on the PS4. Sony has always been an upstanding company and always manages to achieve a good balance of business and consumer friendly decisions. I don't think they'll drop indies soon after like people are saying. They've been making quite the strong indie push even before the PS4 was announced. And they do such a good job they usually drag them to all the conferences and have them right there on the PSN next to big time games. I'm actually a bit disappointed that a lot of the indie games I really wanted are on PS4 and no commitment whatsoever to making an ouya version. Like Mercenary kings said they wanted to do an ouya version but likely to see it on PS4/vita before that one.

[grantmoore3d]

Yeah it feels like Ouya's becoming peoples first step console. Try something out on it. Make it. Release to android, ios. And then move on up the line if you can...

I absolutely agree and personally view the console in that light. I think it's a great way for a first time developer to make something with no real restriction, get a community to play it, gather feedback, improve the experience and then start porting to more profitable platforms. It's my hope that as more indies consider adopting this chain of events OUYA will get a reputation of having games first and thus grow over time. I don't see this progression as a bad thing.

Yeah, it's too bad some people drop the OUYA completely, but I do understand. If Sony personally offered to help me get a game on their system, I'd drop OUYA in a heartbeat to get the game on there. Sure, I might come back WAY later to make a port, but my full time efforts would be capitalizing on the Playstation marketplace because it would be a smart business decision. Unfortunate, but understandable.

[jlenoconel]

You are my hero for this!

I agree with much of that statement also.

The Xbox has ruined gaming in a sense, in my opinion. I miss the days when we had variety in gaming, and much of this was down to the Japanese having most of the control over the gaming world. When that fell apart, and the West started taking over gaming, and releasing first person shooter after first person shooter, things have gotten pretty boring. I also miss the days when we had arcade gaming, as this also brought variety. If I do end up buying a next gen console this era, I'll probably end up going for the Wii U. The PS4 and Xbox One look doomed to repeat everything that the last generation did, and we will have nothing but the same kind of games on these systems.

But still, this doesn't change my previous opinion that the above consoles are real gaming consoles and it will be hard for the OUYA to keep up. The OUYA is good in theory, and I enjoy it, but the execution has been pretty poorly thought out.

[Jakenut86]

The OUYA is good in theory, and I enjoy it, but the execution has been pretty poorly thought out.

totally agree

[MX Woods3]

Ouya needs to step their game up NOW. With the holidays coming up and not everyone being able to afford a xbox one, ps4, or wii u we have to show those people we're no xbox one or ps4 but if you want affordable gaming the ouya is for you. So where do i think they should start? Posters, Commericals, new UI, social features, and anything else that will show people the ouya IS its own unique affordable console that ISN'T just another android device.

[Schizophretard]

I agree with much of that statement also.

The Xbox has ruined gaming in a sense, in my opinion. I miss the days when we had variety in gaming, and much of this was down to the Japanese having most of the control over the gaming world. When that fell apart, and the West started taking over gaming, and releasing first person shooter after first person shooter, things have gotten pretty boring. I also miss the days when we had arcade gaming, as this also brought variety. If I do end up buying a next gen console this era, I'll probably end up going for the Wii U. The PS4 and Xbox One look doomed to repeat everything that the last generation did, and we will have nothing but the same kind of games on these systems.

But still, this doesn't change my previous opinion that the above consoles are real gaming consoles and it will be hard for the OUYA to keep up. The OUYA is good in theory, and I enjoy it, but the execution has been pretty poorly thought out.

Console gaming for the West started in Sunnyvale, CA when an American company called Atari brought the arcade to the living room and before that brought the arcade to umm... the arcade. After the video game crash of 83 the Japanese have been dominating the console market ever since. By the time Microsoft joined the market, first person shooters were already gaming popularity on Japanese consoles sold in the U.S. Microsoft is competing in a Japanese dominated market. I'm not standing up for Microsoft but this is the same Japanese dominated market that has been around since the mid-eighties. If Microsoft never joined the market it would still be dominated by first person shooters. The problem isn't one nationally over another dominating the market but that the market is being dominated in the first place and no one willing to take risks different than what the majority are doing. It is like music. There is a variety of music genres but all the stars are just from a hand full of genres. Most music you will never hear on the radio. You have to look elsewhere to find variety and not at the companies that dominate. The ultimate form of domination is monopoly. The farther we get away from that then the more competition and variety there will be.

[Moonlight]

Console gaming for the West started in Sunnyvale, CA when an American company called Atari brought the arcade to the living room and before that brought the arcade to umm... the arcade. After the video game crash of 83 the Japanese have been dominating the console market ever since. By the time Microsoft joined the market, first person shooters were already gaming popularity on Japanese consoles sold in the U.S. Microsoft is competing in a Japanese dominated market. I'm not standing up for Microsoft but this is the same Japanese dominated market that has been around since the mid-eighties. If Microsoft never joined the market it would still be dominated by first person shooters. The problem isn't one nationally over another dominating the market but that the market is being dominated in the first place and no one willing to take risks different than what the majority are doing. It is like music. There is a variety of music genres but all the stars are just from a hand full of genres. Most music you will never hear on the radio. You have to look elsewhere to find variety and not at the companies that dominate. The ultimate form of domination is monopoly. The farther we get away from that then the more competition and variety there will be.

It's cool to know that video games were created only 30 minutes away from where I live ;D

[Schizophretard]

Ouya needs to step their game up NOW. With the holidays coming up and not everyone being able to afford a xbox one, ps4, or wii u we have to show those people we're no xbox one or ps4 but if you want affordable gaming the ouya is for you. So where do i think they should start? Posters, Commericals, new UI, social features, and anything else that will show people the ouya IS its own unique affordable console that ISN'T just another android device.

I think all they need are big pallets of OUYA's in Walmarts across the country on Black Friday. People will empty every pallet in minutes with nothing more than the same knowledge they received from the Walmart ad they read Thanksgiving night. Walmart shoppers would go all Mad MAX on Black Friday for even a pet rock. I should know. I'm one of them. I would kill a man just to take the wooden pallet home.

It's cool to know that video games were created only 30 minutes away from where I live ;D

Video games weren't created there but the company that made console gaming popular did. Before that everyone went to the arcades or bought a dedicated Pong system to play at home. They were like modern day plug and plays with every variation of Pong imaginable.

[James Andrew Coote]

So I got to chat with Nintendo and Sony (haven't had a chance to ask the Microsoft reps yet) at the Unite conference and both the WiiU and PS4 have moved into a very indie friendly scenario. Basically you need to register a proper company, have a static IP address (for security / tracking purposes on their SDK's) and buy a dev kit. After that, you pretty much control everything else... sure there might be a few more hoops to jump through but it's no where near the insane difficulty of the past to get a game on the console.

What does this mean for OUYA, in my opinion? It means they're going to have a tough time finding developers willing to make exclusives outside of the hobbyist / beginner community. Now, I love that OUYA is way more open and that I can find some more experimental or unconventional games, but this quality doesn't necessarily translate into sales.

So when comparing the OUYA against the big consoles, particularly with respect to indie devs, you're just going to have to accept that you will have a different pool of developers and therefore games on the marketplace. It's comparing apples to oranges, neither is any better or worse though, so support the ones you personally enjoy.

Interesting. I'm going to a talk on Friday that's pretty much the same thing (only Microsoft will also be there, so will get the lowdown from them as well). The things I'll be asking about are to do with quality and also discovery. One of my big hopes for OUYA was that they'd take a different approach to discovery, so that it's not all about getting to the top of the charts. They've certainly avoided just blindly copying some of the deeply flawed approaches many of the mobile app stores have. But what there is instead still needs a lot more experimentation and willingness to try new things. So it'll be interesting to see how Sony and MS in particular think they might approach things

I personally feel the age of the platform exclusive is gone. Tools like Unity3D make it so easy from a technical point of view that why wouldn't you target as many platforms as possible? That's both good and bad for OUYA. Good that it should (in theory) have the same games as other platforms. Bad in that people will say "well it doesn't have anything unique".

In reality, it's actually the other way around. Bad at the moment for OUYA because games that could come to the platform from a technical perspective, devs aren't getting the message or deciding OUYA is too low priority. But good because actually OUYA does have some unique things, such as emulators and the low price point (this OUYA can do everything that other device can... but for $99. Might as well get the cheaper option!)