What Ouya Isn't
games.hazzens.com
What Ouya Isn't
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Re: What Ouya Isn't
#2Finally, some rationality.
It's usually the people who aren't actually gamers or are otherwise familiar with the industry that will breathlessly praise Ouya. Usually people who are wantpreneurs dreaming of day when they live off selling digital snake oil.
That the Ouya would be experienced by them as an apotheosis of that is not surprising.
I've been gaming since I was 2 years old (NES). The kickstarters wasted their money. We already have open platforms, we're just ignoring them.
Re: What Ouya Isn't
#3The key he is missing is Android. The huge big advantage of the OUYA is that it leverages the Android ecosystem. As a game developer myself, we were already developing OUYA ready games before the OUYA existed. Many (most?) games in the Play Store right now are already ready for the OUYA (gamepad support, freemium, 10 feet experience) or close to it. Which are a great good practice for developers to be following on Android anyway. And now the OUYA is an additional encouragement.
I agree with the author that the OUYA is not the future of gaming. Android is the future of gaming, the OUYA is just a tiny piece of the whole puzzle. There will be plenty of competition in the Android gaming-focused set top box in the next few years. The OUYA is just the first one. Maybe the OUYA itself will fail and lose ground to the competition. I don't know, nor do I care. It doesn't matter. What matters is that in the end of today it will have helped drive the Android ecosystem forward. The OUYA sends a clear message to the incumbent. Even if the OUYA dies because it couldn't outsell the new sony/samsung/whatever Android gaming boxes. It still succeeded on a game developer's point of view. Because the OUYA ever existed. More developers will be making their games compatible with consoles. More OEMs will be building Android gaming devices of different formats. Both game developers and gamers win.
He's right, the OUYA is just a so-so box without much special by itself. But it doesn't make sense to look to the OUYA by itself. Almost no one would've backed the OUYA if it was just a new platform never seen before. But it's not. The OUYA is just a detail that shows a clear trend that was not as obvious before (though many of us were saying this for years). Which is that Android is the gaming platform of the future.
Re: What Ouya Isn't
#4You make it sound like developers need to develop specifically for OUYA, many Android games can be very easily ported to the OUYA platform. By using Android OUYA is also tapping the giant pool of existing Android and Java software engineering talent. They are attempting to bridge the gap between smart phone games and console games.
No, its probably not the future of set top entertainment but for $99 I would take an OUYA over an Apple TV, Roku, whatever else any day of the week. Just because it isn't revolutionary doesn't mean it won't be cool/useful/successful.
Re: What Ouya Isn't
#5I think what he's missing is that a lot of people are expressing interest in building games and apps for it specifically and maybe exclusively.
This addresses the weak point of android and also newly released consoles. New consoles (the wii comes to mind) tend to have a lack of games, which tends to in turn make them less attractive. Android phones are pretty damn good these days but the apps are worse than iOS ones in general, which gives me pause when considering it.
Good devices without content suck, and vice versa (maybe a bit less so). So it's all about packaging good content with your good device. I think that's what they are aiming at.
Re: What Ouya Isn't
#6On one side I want it to succeed (the liberal hobbyist in me), on the other side I see some problems (the conservative console game developer in me)
I don't see how AAA title would be delivered to this device. And without AAA titles, the device can't be primarily about games.
What used to fit in CD-ROM in PSX days, then on DVD in PS2/Xbox, now it needs bigger and more storage. With the recent download limits from internet companies that would become even harder. It's one thing to stream 2-3hr movie - it's completely another to have the assets on time, even to places where bandwidth is not that great.
TRC - Technical Requirements Certification process - This is the GATE to the quality. It's way more hard and complete process than Apple's or Android (if there is any).
Security - Hardest part to get. You can't succeed here, it's a goalie position. But if you can hold long enough, you'll be good. Yes, piracy is what makes video games unsellable in China (so far micro-payment seems to work there).
Original Titles - Without them, or much improved Ports of something else - there is no direct incentive to buy it.
Second nature - The device does not serve as something else to be used mainly instead of games. When I bought my PS2, there were not many PS2 games, but it was (and still is) pretty good and cheap DVD player.
Re: What Ouya Isn't
#7Finally, some rationality. It's usually the people who aren't actually gamers or are otherwise familiar with the industry that will breathlessly praise Ouya. Usually people who are wantpreneurs dreaming of day when they live off selling digital snake oil. That the Ouya would be experienced by them as an apotheosis of that is not surprising. I've been gaming since I was 2 years old (NES). The kickstarters wasted their…
I agree with the rationality part and enjoyed the 'digital snake oil' statement.
However, I'd be happy if Ouya just creates a buzz for Android gaming. I couldn't care 2-shits for the box itself, but if playing Android games on the TV (through mirroring, through Google TV etc.) takes off, that'd be pretty neat for the Android ecosystem.
P.S. I could never put my finger on it, but something about the Ouya Kickstarter never felt right to me. If I had to guess, it was the scant tech. details and throwing Yves Behar's name around for credibility (although I think it does the opposite, the OLPC is a piece of shit). Naturally, many people thought otherwise.
Re: What Ouya Isn't
#8On one side I want it to succeed (the liberal hobbyist in me), on the other side I see some problems (the conservative console game developer in me) I don't see how AAA title would be delivered to this device. And without AAA titles, the device can't be primarily about games. What used to fit in CD-ROM in PSX days, then on DVD in PS2/Xbox, now it needs bigger and more storage. With the recent download limits from int…
> What used to fit in CD-ROM in PSX days, then on DVD in PS2/Xbox, now it needs bigger and more storage. With the recent download limits from internet companies that would become even harder.
Depends on your Internet connection. As a Steam user, I'm used to downloading games and love the benefits (no worries about losing the disc); though I think the largest game I've downloaded is Portal 2 at ~11GB, even 50 GB will download overnight on my home connection, with a good server. But in general, I don't think OUYA is expected to be about AAA titles...
> Second nature - The device does not serve as something else to be used mainly instead of games. When I bought my PS2, there were not many PS2 games, but it was (and still is) pretty good and cheap DVD player.
Sure it does - classic game emulator, media player / streaming target. Other consoles have to be hacked to run XBMC.
Re: What Ouya Isn't
#9I hope it can be a tegra 4 console with a discrete gpu, something like geforce 660.
Re: What Ouya Isn't
#10Finally, some rationality. It's usually the people who aren't actually gamers or are otherwise familiar with the industry that will breathlessly praise Ouya. Usually people who are wantpreneurs dreaming of day when they live off selling digital snake oil. That the Ouya would be experienced by them as an apotheosis of that is not surprising. I've been gaming since I was 2 years old (NES). The kickstarters wasted their…
"Finally, some rationality."
You say that as if people haven't been pissing on the Ouya full time since its announcement. Right or wrong this is hardly a new view, nor did anything about it immediately leap out to me as being new or even an unusual opinion.