The Ouya is a small $99 android based console that was released in June. The problem was that nobody bought it. For those of you that didn’t know about or didn’t buy….I don’t blame you at all.
Now the Ouya got its start by the backing of Kickstarter.com reaching over 8 million dollars in backing money, making it the most successful gaming related project the website has ever held with Mighty No.9 coming in second. But we soon learned that Kickstarter isn’t a exactly a way that predicts the outgoing success of a certain project meaning that just because you do well on Kickstarter doesn’t mean your project won’t do well in the real world.
The console’s launch was plagued with troubles. 1) The first shipment of consoles didn’t reach to all of the backers who supported it. 2)For the people that did get the console on launch they suffered through malfunctioning controllers as the thumbstick didn’t work, the buttons get stuck and the Wi-Fi feature for some units were shoddy at best resulting in a feature that works on and off. And finally the fact that there aren’t that many games on it that you can’t play on your Android smartphone or Steam. There was also an immature vomit-fuelled Ouya advertisement that poked fun at $60 games, which got a lot of heat over its over-the-top usage of puke.
From systems that could keep your beer cool, to oddities trying to get in on the popularity of VHS and laserdisc, you’ve got some very, very weird video game consoles out there.
I had the LaserActive... it was a nice collectors piece but not very practical. Especially when it came to needing recapping. I think i paid all of about $50 for the floor model from an incredible Universe back in the day. I ended up selling it many years later for $300 at the time due to it needing a new laser and the aforementioned recapping.
An honorable mention not on the list would be the VM Labs Nuon. It basically looked like any regular DVD player but it had ports on it for controllers to play specific games. one of which is still exclusive to it with Tempest 3000. It also offered nuon enhanced DVD movies with extra content not accessible by regular players.
Virtual Boy, Sega Nomad, Ouya and the other troubled game systems that nobody bought.
How has this article missed out Sega's Dreamcast and Nintendo's Wii U, two consoles that were actually superb devices in their own right, but were seen as failed due to lacklustre sales at the time of release?
Wonder how long before Stadia appears on the list surprised the Ngage is not on that list
Talk about a blast to the past.......I remember trying the virtual boy at Toy R Us and it was cool but I did feel slightly disoriented afterwards......good article.
The Ouya, a failed Android gaming console from early in this generation, is getting a second lease on life thanks to Internet archivists and some new software.
That's pretty cool they were able to bring it back. It sucks when something online only gets killed.
I got mine when it first launched, however it wasn't good for anything other than retro emulation. I couldn't sell the thing fast enough. Managed to get almost all my money back selling it on eBay.
I guess the Stadia launch is bringing back memories of other failed consoles/services.
Right off the bad this whole thing was a messed! You can easily buy a cheap knock off of consoles in China and it will even support nintendo games that can emulate NES and gameboy games.
Buyer beware!
There just isn't any room for another console out in the market. Especially one that doesn't have any kind of draw or defining features that appeal to the majority of gamers.
As the author said, many people are using it to emulate old games on their TV? Not a great selling point or start if you ask me.
bu-bu-but... it's a revolution...
i called it a long time ago (while it was still a kickstarter project) that:
a) it was going to fail
and
b) it was just going to end up being a nintendo emulator
It was an awesome idea that was painfully executed. Sony just handed ouya its ass on a plate with vita tv I feel. Still its like you say. Why bother with it when your smart phone does it all
Please do not praise the Vita TV untill it actually comes out.