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Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

joystiq.com

61–70 of 86 posts

Re: Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

#61
post #42
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their platform [...] has a tiny user base A platform. That does not even exist yet. Has a tiny user base. We have a genius here.

That it hasn't yet released doesn't mean we don't know what we're looking at in terms of a market. 60,000 committed users is a spectacularly tiny user base. I'd bet money (and am in fact betting my own time, which isn't entirely dissimilar) that the userbase of modern Android devices--say, from as far back as the Nexus One phone to the current Nexus 7 tablet--is so much bigger that if even one in twenty users care ab…

I'm sure the argument goes that ouya users are "proper gamers" - which is great but it's only really worthwhile if you also can charge "proper game" fees of $10+

The scale isn't there for a freemium or $0.99 app economy.

Re: Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

#62

While everyone seems to be commenting on the impact this will have on hardware manufacturers, I'm more excited about the impact this will have on the big software distributors. I would love to see a disruption to the likes of EA. The console video gaming world has become, mostly, stagnant; full of sequels upon sequels. Current games are chocked full of DRM for overplayed, non-innovative titles. The market has become…

EA and Activision are the heroes gamers deserve. Honestly, when your target audience are people so devoted to a frivolous activity that they willing buy devices with no other purpose than to consume carefully curated content, it becomes hard to see them as anything other than a paycheck.

> devoted to a frivolous activity

You say that with scorn. And yet here you are, talking about frivolity on the internet.

Re: Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

#63

$8,580,682 (from 63,277 backers) - keep perspective guys. 60k - That's like one week of sales of one of the consoles in Japan only. And those aren't even pushed units numbers. Not to mention amount of money that rolls in the likes of EA titles. It's all nice and all, but nowhere near disruptive word.

You don't need to own the market to disrupt the market. Even if they don't sell a single unit beyond the preorders, selling 60k units of a gaming device is enough to make studios take notice that there is a demand. Compare it with minor political parties, where the goal often isn't to become president but rather to force the hands of larger, established parties.

Valid point! I'm not sure about visibility of OUYA though, time will tell.

Re: Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

#65
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'm willing to throw some money at serious research into what's so hard about making tiny $99 consoles" Generally, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale

Could you clarify? Do you mean that it's harder to make these things smaller? Because that's not what "Economies of scale" refers to. Even if you are trying to make a point about the long run average cost of console production, I still don't see the direct connection and I'd like to know what you're getting at.

Xbox 360s were sold at a loss until years after launch. (MS made their money on license sales from games.) At a production run of a few tens of thousands, the Ouya is not much better off than a full-custom hardware build, and it's difficult to make such a box for ~$100.

Re: Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

#67
post #6

What we can take away from this, and i hope the major console makers do this as well is, that many people (especially developers of course) want a more open and friendly console market. This basically embodies what the rumours wanted Valve to do with their own pc-based console.

Not that many people, only 60,000. This is nothing.

Re: Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

#68

While everyone seems to be commenting on the impact this will have on hardware manufacturers, I'm more excited about the impact this will have on the big software distributors. I would love to see a disruption to the likes of EA. The console video gaming world has become, mostly, stagnant; full of sequels upon sequels. Current games are chocked full of DRM for overplayed, non-innovative titles. The market has become…

Why do you assume EA won't release games for it?

Re: Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

#69
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'm willing to throw some money at serious research into what's so hard about making tiny $99 consoles" Generally, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale

Could you clarify? Do you mean that it's harder to make these things smaller? Because that's not what "Economies of scale" refers to. Even if you are trying to make a point about the long run average cost of console production, I still don't see the direct connection and I'd like to know what you're getting at.

The sort of design one would want in a forward-thinking console wouldn't be offered in small quantities, certainly not for 99 bucks without subsidization.

Re: Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

#70

While I backed this project and think its sorely needed to allow software developers access to the console platforms, I think the design of the controller was rather disappointing. I figured if they were going to create a new hardware platform it would have a more revolutionary form factor. The controller hasn't changed since the mid-1980s. Almost all the game console makers make the same damned controllers with exce…

When you're doing a project like this, you want less, not more risk.

Changing controller design would be a foolhardy adding of risk. Something very familiar is a great choice for it

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