Sean Hollister of The Verge writes: "Last year, I predicted that the rising tide of Android gaming would raise all boats — that indie game consoles like the Ouya, the Shield, and the Gamestick could mount a challenge against Xbox and PlayStation because of all the attention they were getting as a whole. Sadly, it looks like I was wrong. This week, the leader of the indie console charge is standing down."
'Ouya sought to bottle the magic of indie game development'
Instead they took a stack of cash then took a dump on it. Game Over, insert credit to continue.
Should of released around 2011/2012 at the peak of last gen console fatigue.Why they decided to quietly launch during the mad frenzy of xbox one/PS4 is something i will never understand.
I think what sold a LOT of people, including myself, is how they emphasized the importance of a controller & a TV. When the kickstarter launched for OUYA, at that time I was convinced next gen was going to be a gimmicky mess with far more emphasis on motion controls and casual gaming than ever before so they sold me on the idea of OUYA with their pitch. Problem for me was the hardware was far too weak, even for small indie games, and that Sony came out and announced the PS4 which totally won me over instantly. Making OUYA irrelevant.
It was a terrible idea from the start. Playing Cell phone games on your TV wouldnt appeal to very many people.
Good read. Some people like to hate on certain brands for whatever reason but reality it the console business is a very hard business to break into.
Imo I knew this would flop from the get go. I'd also like to stop hearing how mobile chipsets are going to become sooooo powerful that it could make consoles redundant. Hasnt that been the case since tegra 1 was announced, yet here we are 4 years later still singing "wait till x chip comes out" tune.
They just don't get it. The money from android gaming is from the extremely casual players that probably don't own a console or have interest in it, they like candy crush etc. The hardcore isn't going to spend 10-15 $ on a console quality game for their phone that still doesn't have physical buttons. Maybe mobile controllers will fix that but that remains to be seen.