Quote Originally Posted by darth2d2 View Post
It's odd that developers would have any issue with a company that lets them eschew publishers. Not saying that it is unlikely, just that it is odd. Developer lack of Ouya support and the whole Double Fine Broken Age fiasco are going to reinforce the idea that Publishers need to exist. The funny thing is indie companies are becoming more and more like publishers, worrying more about demographics than just making something inspired. It is disheartening.
Thing is, mobile and PC already let you self-publish and have done for years. The big 3 are slowly opening up their systems to self-publishing (some of them have further to go than others, but they talk a good talk). So far from being something unique to OUYA, it's more the standard, at which some platforms are already at, and the rest are moving purposely towards.

Publishing is somewhat separate from that. Traditionally, publishers do things that developers would find difficult to do alone. Namely market and distribute. Digital Distribution costs are now effectively zero, whilst new channels have opened up for marketing games. Things like youtube and social media and even getting press, which simply require man-hours, but can be done by an individual or small number of people, and don't require the economies of scale that traditional marketing required, and which publishers provided.

You could legitimately ask whether those "new marketing channels" are effective any more for new/small organisations, and for traditional marketing, publishers can sometimes still offer value for money. The problem on mobile platforms is over-supply of games, and the particulars of the app stores making anything not in the charts doomed to sink into obscurity. The issue when looking at OUYA is that, while there isn't much competition relatively speaking, it is also a really small market.

It's all very well saying developers should make games from the heart, but most developers are businesses. They have to put food on the table, so it's a case of making games that will enable them to do that (either right now or in the future). Since game development is so labour intensive, its difficult to make a substantive game just as a hobby in your spare time.

OUYA has arguably, to date, been running on dreams and good will, but that only lasts so long, and OUYA is a business as well. They can't wait 10 years for those kids to grow up and become paying customers, because it's investors aren't running this as a hobby either. At some point, it has to get its marketing and business side of things right.