Ouya: So ... what happened?

Miscellaneous Topics
#21

The backer thing. If anything, that lost them the most support. I was suppose to get my Ouya in April, and it didn’t get here until early July. It was just ridiculous how they were ignoring the hundreds and thousands of complaints and support tickets about them not holding their end of the deal (in terms of kickstarter promises). It wouldn’t have been so bad if they would have at least acknowledged the issue. But, no. They would not give us any information whatsoever. There are still people who haven’t got their backer console and those people are still being ignored.

This company is very obviously run by a bunch of people who A) Don’t know how to run a company and B) Think it’s okay to promise the world, and only deliver it half-ass’d.

All that said, the console is neat, to say the least. The bugs and controller issues ruin a lot of the experience, but it’s still fun to mess with.
I would completely agree that the hardware shouldn’t be upgraded yearly, like other consoles. But, it’s not like other consoles. It’s an android machine. Android phones come with all different hardware configurations, yet devs still put out games to support what they can. To me, for Ouya to upgrade once per year isn’t a big deal. If it were to cost the same as a smart phone, that’d be a different story. But, it’s only $100. At the end of the day, Ouya is just an android phone that can’t make calls and comes with a controller, so why not upgrade it at the same rate as phone manufacturers?

#22

Most companies are like that; it’s ridiculous to believe that you, yes, just you, should receive priority attention above the other 100,000 backers, and get your Ouya on time.

Things don’t always go to plan mostly because the future is largely unknown. It’s amazing they’ve managed to release anything at all and get it in anyone’s hands. Even though it is a total disaster from every perspective.

Cas :slight_smile:

#23

Odd how? Odd because it’s an android-based console, or odd hardware compared to vanilla android devices?

#24

Screen res, controller, IAP is all a bit funky - but then it’s just “another” platform rather than Android standard.

Cheers,

Kev

#25

I don’t think it’s really a disaster. It pretty much delivered what I expected.
Apparently, about 25% percent of the owners have bought at least 1 game, which is not all that bad. It’s just that the user base is small.

I do believe it’s a nice way to get some attention to your game; it’s much more likely to get noticed there now compared to Google Play (where your game is likely to get drowned in a sea of games).

#26

Ouya needs to decide whether it’s truly ‘mobile’ or a real console, because a mix isn’t going to satisfy users. Android games (even the ones that are playable on Ouya) are not polished/good enough to make it a console (how is Angry Birds going to compete with Call of Duty?) but on the other hand I don’t really see people carrying around that controller, either.

#27

Angry Birds can easily compete with COD. I think it’s made more money by some margin too. COD players are actually a minority of game players.

Cas :slight_smile:

#28

Yes, but no one is buying an Ouya to play Angry Birds. Dungeon Defenders, maybe.

#29

So you’re saying they need a flagship game that people buy it to play?

Cheers,

Kev

#30

That’s traditionally been the recipe for success, yes. The other recipe is that consoles don’t normally do demos; however Ouya are fighting what they perceive to be the Good Fight and insist on every game available having a demo. Which unfortunately cuts sales in half, increases development costs (slightly), and means that people can be quite happy never buying anything. It’s a big mistake.

Cas :slight_smile:

#31

Well, it does take away the excuse people use of torrenting games to “test them out” (although I’m not sure that would decrease the amount of torrenting, anyways). However, I agree that demos won’t make them much money…how many times have people walked into GameStop, played the demo(s), then walked out without buying anything ;D

#32

Well cas commented on it, and I made some research too.
Indeed games that dont have a demo just a trailer, do make more money vs. games that offer a demo.

#33

Granted, the demos for these games are downright pathetic. I can promise you that no one is going to find much enjoyment on non-free game demos for Ouya.

And, I completely understand why that’s the case. These devs don’t want to waste their time with demos. They hardly charge anything for their games as is.

#34

I agree that it their policy about having to have a free portion is a mistake.
FTP is definitely interesting, but not for everything. And demos usually don’t really work as a business model.

I wonder though if a non-interactive demo would be acceptable there. Does anyone know?
Something like a free ‘attract mode’ where you can see how it runs and how it plays, look around in the highscore tables and such, but don’t actually get to start a game yourself?

#35

Like what we do with our games eh?

Cas :slight_smile:

#36

sounds like the demo arcades games have.

#37

This isn’t a coin-op arcade – you really do have to offer some playability in a demo. It doesn’t have to be large, but does have to have some play. I think it’s philosophically a great idea to require some kind of demo for every title, but it’s also amusingly arrogant of Ouya to throw their microscopic weight around and outright demand it.

#38

A little late to the convo but…

Towerfall is amazingly fun, and did a great job on their demo, I couldn’t resist purchasing it… BombSquad is equally entertaining… of course both require multiple people/controllers for epic fun!

The controller does suck! shoulder buttons will occasionally stick, there is noticeable lag in input at times…The controller is such an intricate part of the console, I dont understand how they managed to mess that up, such an epic fail!

All in all, for $100 I am happy with the purchase, I can deploy to a console, even if its for my own enjoyment for now…

Who has games released on it? I noticed/purchased Gunslugs… would be interested in playing more local JGO devs games…

#39

That’s exactly what I mean.

The problem with a playable demo is that you often don’t really feel the need to buy it anymore since the novelty has already worn off.
The arcade’s typical “attract mode” worked then and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work now, especially for the sort of games on Ouya.

#40

I understand why Demos don’t make good business sense, but from an ideological standpoint I find the idea of not using demos (in essence forcing consumers to buy the product without having a good idea of whether they like it or not) questionable.

Then again, nowadays Demos can be monetized through adverts, can’t they? Specially when you’re dealing with smaller games and mobile apps.

I personally think (from my idealistic standpoint) that a proper Demo should be an integral part of the development process, both to sell the game to costumers and investors. Maybe that way (by not being something “extra” to be done) it won’t have such an impact?

Technically, even most of the QA could be done with a Demo, as long as all that isn’t included in the demo is simply content, rather than gameplay.

Anyway, just my ignorant opinion.