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OUYA - A new $99 console powered by Android [Kickstarter ended, $8.5 million funded]

Vamphuntr

Member

The article is poorly written and seems on the level of some of GAF posters. It really feels like reading one of those speculation threads. He does bring up some valid points though. For instance, I do wonder about the possibilities of having all those AAA games listed in that survey. If people expect to play Skyrim and GTA V on that thing they will be disappointed for sure.

I much preferred the opinion of the MBA guy linked before.

EDIT : He's also spot on about their definition of F2P too. According to them a demo is considered a F2P game...
 

KDR_11k

Member
I'm curious as to how Ouya plans to get around all the patents the other console and hardware makers have to pay for the privilege of dipping into.

It's a smartphone with the screen and phone function removed, a pretty standard system using off-the-shelf hardware components and software. The only patent issues it might have is with Apple, as with all Android phones.
 
I do wonder about the possibilities of having all those AAA games listed in that survey. If people expect to play Skyrim and GTA V on that thing they will be disappointed for sure.
Obviously the survey is so they can take the results to those publishers "90% of Ouya customers say they want Skyrim, you should make an Elder Scrolls sub-game for Ouya, we'll cut you a special deal if you do"

EDIT : He's also spot on about their definition of F2P too. According to them a demo is considered a F2P game...
And I don't see the big deal about "All Games Free to Play" - it's like they expect nobody to actually read more of the Kickstarter site than the big headlines. Right under that "All Games Free to Play" headline it specifically says

Ouya said:
We're handing the reins over to the developer with only one condition: at least some gameplay has to be free. We borrowed the free-to-play model from games like League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Triple Town, and many others. Developers can offer a free demo with a full-game upgrade, in-game items or powers, or ask you to subscribe.

And then further down is a mini FAQ where the second question is "When you say "free games," what does that mean exactly?"

Ouya said:
We want you to pay only for the games you love. A “free to play” model works when everyone (gamers and game makers) benefits from directly rewarding amazing games.

For gamers, every game will be free to play: what this means is that there will at least be a free demo, or you’ll be able to play the entirety of the game for free but may have access to additional items, upgrades, or other features that come at a cost.

For developers, free to play means that they can set their own prices. Developers know best: There is no better way to sell a game than to have folks that have actually touched the game share glowing reviews with their friends. By allowing some form of free play, we’ll help them do just that. The only reason you used to pay for games before playing them is that you couldn’t try them at the store before you brought them home – it’s a relic of an old way of doing business, and one of the many things about the games business we plan to change.
 
And I don't see the big deal about "All Games Free to Play" - it's like they expect nobody to actually read more of the Kickstarter site than the big headlines. Right under that "All Games Free to Play" headline it specifically says

For marketing purposes, big headlines are what matter
They made it intentionally misleading and when you make something intentionally misleading, you lose integrity
 

KDR_11k

Member
Free to play sucks anyway but seems to be the only viable business model for Android. They'll NEED to support Google Play if they aren't completely insane and then they don't get to make demands (which is GOOD).

Hell, they tout the Android version of Minecraft, there's no free version of that.
 

wildfire

Banned
For marketing purposes, big headlines are what matter
They made it intentionally misleading and when you make something intentionally misleading, you lose integrity

They didn't mislead anyone on this specific point. People can't read or listen to words. Not only does the FAQ say it isn't just F2P games but the first words that come from the video pitch is "free to try."

Being an older gamer who isn't hard of hearing I knew this meant demos. Obviously a lot of older gamers need hearing aids and younger gamers missed out on the shareware scene so mistook one thing for another. The latter can be excused. The former like yourself can't.


Here are more people on the Ouya team: Amol Sarva of Peek, founder of Virgin Mobile. Peter Pham of Color Labs, and Muffi Ghadiali, who worked for Amazon's Lab126 that made the Kindle.

Seems they have plenty of entrepreneurs on the team with experience in successful startups and getting things manufactured, in both big and small teams.


To add to that their initial seed investor is some exec from Paypal
 
Preface: I still haven't bought into this yet (both literally and figuratively), because it's still not clear to me if "Ouya" is going to have what it takes to realize the idea of an open linux-based living room videogame console... but I do really like that underlying idea, and many of these objections seem to be against the idea itself.
no. they want their own store so google doesn't get a cut and they won't be forced to use google services.
It doesn't have to be one or the other, it can be both.

Fragmentation is due to partners not pushing updates, and the SDK has matured so rapidly that certain games don't work on certain platforms. So you have SDK fragmentation. You have hardware fragmentation. You have Store fragmentation. Android is a mess.
Fragmentation in this case meaning all of that, but I was referring specifically to hardware fragmentation.

Android is a mess, but if Ouya (or something like it) becomes a platform in and of itself it rises above that concern. You can essentially "port" your code to Ouya from Android, the same way you would port something from Windows to OSX.

Android piracy is rampant for a couple reasons.
1. Rooting the device is EASY.
2. Finding APK are EASY.
3. File sizes are small.

I think piracy is awful. But sadly, selling a device that is being sold as 'hackable' wouldn't want to make me make games for it.
Not to poo poo the threat of piracy, but I'm going to poo poo the threat of piracy. Any platform that's open will also be open to piracy. Somehow e-books are making money, somehow iTunes and Amazon MP3 (...etc) exist, and somehow developers keep making iOS apps and PC games even though it's not that hard to pirate those either! Piracy is a service problem and a pricing problem, it should not be used as a boogeyman to justify a high barrier to entry for software development.
 

wildfire

Banned
I liked this comment and concerns brought up about fragmentation on reddit.

I'm an Android person, and while I can't stand the fragmentation argument, I am concerned about this. Not from the development standpoint, but as a consumer within the Android ecosystem.

Since I have an Android phone, I've already purchased some Android games, like Shadowgun. Because OUYA is running its own marketplace, I won't automatically own Shadowgun for the OUYA. Instead, I'll have to buy it again.

This hurts the other way around too - Buy an Android game on OUYA? Good luck playing it on your Android tablet/phone. The OUYA market may not be there.

What would be ideal is OUYA ushering in a new class of android devices - Android TV devices, with controllers meant for gaming. It'd run stock Android, with access to Google Play. Developers still can support OUYA, and other OUYA-like devices within their games. Users still get OUYA-optimized games, but also all the other Android apps (which would make for an excellent entertainment center).

The problem is that this model doesn't help OUYA, the makers of the device. They are counting on revenues from their own app market...

Personally, I'm not buying the OUYA for the OUYA eco-system. I'm buying it to put stock Android on it, and have Android on my TV.
 
I liked this comment and concerns brought up about fragmentation on reddit.

Is this really true? Isn't all Android content tied to your google account? I can see OUYA running a layer on top of that to OUYAtize everything but wouldn't the underlying content still be the same?
 
Not to poo poo the threat of piracy, but I'm going to poo poo the threat of piracy. Any platform that's open will also be open to piracy. Somehow e-books are making money, somehow iTunes and Amazon MP3 (...etc) exist, and somehow developers keep making iOS apps and PC games even though it's not that hard to pirate those either! Piracy is a service problem and a pricing problem, it should not be used as a boogeyman to justify a high barrier to entry for software development.

Agreed 100%. I think it's been pretty well established that you can either a) spend a bunch of money and effort trying to make piracy impossible (which is a fantasy) and likely make your product worse for your paying customers, or you can b) stop worrying so much about the people who don't value your product, and focus on providing a better product for the customers who actually pay for your stuff. A company of this size isn't going to have the resources to solve piracy and create a worthwhile product, so I'd much rather see them focus on b).

Besides, I can't see piracy being a significant deterrent for most indies, considering how many of them sell their games completely DRM-free on the PC.

I liked this comment and concerns brought up about fragmentation on reddit.

That's a good point. That seems like more of a Google problem though -- Android has always allowed for alternate app stores that don't tie back to your Google account.

Seems like maybe OUYA could get around it to some extent by making a third-party OUYA App Store for phones that could let you tie cross-platform OUYA games back to your phone.
 

wildfire

Banned
Is this really true? Isn't all Android content tied to your google account? I can see OUYA running a layer on top of that to OUYAtize everything but wouldn't the underlying content still be the same?



Since I don't own an Android I'm not familiar with the specifics of the market. If this problem turns out to be real at launch I would hope the Ouya team reconsider allowing for two versions of the same app/game. If it is something on your phone it should be possible to save it to your Ouya machine and have a simple upscalar adapt it to your tv. That would be the first version.
If you want better features that the devs made specifically for the Ouya then you have to pay for an upgrade fee to the second version.
 

tino

Banned
I liked this comment and concerns brought up about fragmentation on reddit.

As long as you can install the real Android Play store on OUYA, you can get your paid games back. However if the version on the OUYA store is different then you have to pay again for the OUYA optimized version.

I used to have both stores on my phone, the google market and the Amazon app store. The Amazon app store update process was so tedious I ended up uninstalling all Amazon purchased apps and paid a couple extra dollars to rebuy the same apps on google market.

What OUYA is doing is no different from what B&N and Amazon did. They don't own the android ecosystem they are just piggy back on top of android. They make money on their app store for the sake of convenience but they can't stop people from using the google official store. As long as OUYA make money on their hardware they sell then its still a viable business model to them.
 

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
@ playouya How are you going to market, design, and ship a fully functioning console by March with only 5-10 million dollars?

@ LogicallyHank We've done a lot of work already. Starting with Android simplifies things. (For March, we're focused on Kickstarter backers.)
 
@ playouya How are you going to market, design, and ship a fully functioning console by March with only 5-10 million dollars?

@ LogicallyHank We've done a lot of work already. Starting with Android simplifies things. (For March, we're focused on Kickstarter backers.)

I'm very curious about how much progress they've made and what remaining milestones they have to hit. Hopefully they'll be as transparent as the Pebble team have been.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Vamphuntr said:
The article is poorly written and seems on the level of some of GAF posters. It really feels like reading one of those speculation threads. He does bring up some valid points though. For instance, I do wonder about the possibilities of having all those AAA games listed in that survey. If people expect to play Skyrim and GTA V on that thing they will be disappointed for sure.

There's no need to wonder about those AAA games. They won't happen. Period. For obvious reasons; You don't dilute your brand value by pushing it on a platform that offers neither an advantageous ARPU nor the ubiquity that comes from a huge userbase and mass marketing.

Much like the whole notion of putting a trackpad on the controller being an equivalent to a touch-screen display (!) its more than disingenuous, its deception.

Noone in the industry has a reason to back this device. If you have the skills/capabilities/time and don't believe piracy is an issue or the value of advertising write your own game and sell it for PC/Mac/Whatever on your own website. Or XBL's indie-games channel. Or just punt it out on Android devices with specific limitations of hardware/display type so you don't have to sweat bullets over fragmentation.

All these services offer a better return on investment NOW than an untried, minimally funded startup like Ouya will be able to.

If you're just doing it for the love, consider doing something for Raspberry Pi
 

element

Member
Is this really true? Isn't all Android content tied to your google account? I can see OUYA running a layer on top of that to OUYAtize everything but wouldn't the underlying content still be the same?
It is totally true. I can't even buy items on the Google Play store, even through I own a Kindle Fire which uses Android. Google attempts to push Google Play but phone providers can for you to buy it from their store, meaning you would have to purchase it again if you change phones/tablets.

I highly doubt that OUYA will work with Google Play, since they don't want to share any profits with Google.

And he ignores the fact that Ed Fries is on the team, who has plenty of experience not only with the XBox, but with getting hardware manufactured and with startups.
Ed doesn't work for them. He is an investor and advisor. Huge difference.

but the employee thing is just strange. I mean, he complains that there are mystery employees who haven't left their day jobs to work at Ouya...but how would Ouya pay those people *before* getting money from Kickstarter?
They have a number of first/second investors. As I have said before, the Kickstarter campaign is to generate buzz and finish a prototype to bring to larger venture capitalists. The only 'employee' that we know about is Julie, and EVERYONE else are consultants.

Here are more people on the Ouya team: Amol Sarva of Peek, founder of Virgin Mobile. Peter Pham of Color Labs, and Muffi Ghadiali, who worked for Amazon's Lab126 that made the Kindle.
More advisors, consultants, investors.
 
I was a click of a confirm button from buying but not knowing the exact internals stopped me.

Tegra 4 won't happen. Tegra3 T33 and DDR3L RAM would be doable and amazing. Those are the cutting edge Tegra chips.

I would happily plop down one for every tv in my house for XBMC alone.
 
There's no need to wonder about those AAA games. They won't happen. Period. For obvious reasons; You don't dilute your brand value by pushing it on a platform that offers neither an advantageous ARPU nor the ubiquity that comes from a huge userbase and mass marketing.

Much like the whole notion of putting a trackpad on the controller being an equivalent to a touch-screen display (!) its more than disingenuous, its deception.

Noone in the industry has a reason to back this device.

I could easily see Epic porting their mobile unreal engine to this and make a showpiece game like they did on the iPhone/iPad.

Also, I think Nvidia will throw some money down to get devs to develop for this so they can push this same Tegra chipset into smartphones and devices similar to this advertising all the compatible games.
 

sykoex

Lost all credibility.
I was a click of a confirm button from buying but bit knowing the exact internals stopped me.

Tegra 4 won't happen. Tegra3 T33 and DDR3L RAM would be doable and amazing. Those are the cutting edge Tegra chips.

I would happily plop down one for every tv in my house for XBMC alone.
Yeah I think this product would make a lot more sense if they pumped it full of media streaming capabilities. Having its usefulness hinge on game software support will be pretty iffy.


BTW It's awesome to see you on GAF. I loved you on Strangers With Candy.
 
Thanks.

I agree, they could significantly increase their sales if they announce that XBMC will be ported to it and/or that it will support many codecs and feature a wifi n chip
 

element

Member
I could easily see Epic porting their mobile unreal engine to this and make a showpiece game like they did on the iPhone/iPad.
I can't. Epic loves money. They have already discussed why Infinity Blade isn't on Android.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
For marketing purposes, big headlines are what matter
They made it intentionally misleading and when you make something intentionally misleading, you lose integrity

Yep. A better headline would have been something like "try before you buy!" or something. At least then it wouldn't sound so deceptive.
 

Truespeed

Member
what are you talking about? How on earth is it 'not really'? I guess Amazon is wrong in their marketing, and the press, and me. I mean I thought I put APKs on there, but what do I know about computers.

I must have missed the ad where Amazon called it an Android device. Do you have a copy?

Fragmentation is due to partners not pushing updates, and the SDK has matured so rapidly that certain games don't work on certain platforms. So you have SDK fragmentation. You have hardware fragmentation. You have Store fragmentation. Android is a mess.

Your arguments are a mess. Fragmentation, from a software perspective, is not due to the speed of SDK iteration, in fact it's slowed down to one major release every 8-12 months, but rather hardware differentiation. And if your device isn't compatible with the game you can't even download it from the Play store. Most games target Android 2.3 anyway and if those games don't work on certain phones then it's likely due to the hardware in the device.[/QUOTE]

Android piracy is rampant for a couple reasons.
1. Rooting the device is EASY.
2. Finding APK are EASY.
3. File sizes are small.

That probably explains why iOS piracy is also rampant. In fact it's probably even easier on iOS. As is with rooting because it gets no easier then a web site drive by. As for downloading IPA's, well not only does iOS have better and more professionally built sites to facilitate this, but they're even more user friendly than that bloated pig iTunes.


I'm comparing their interface to the metro interface, in that there will be fronted ads to promote certain games and you will still have to find good content. Especially if there is little or no curation.

So a 4x2 rectangular box UI is now considered Metro? In that case Metro ripped off the AOL Kids Only UI interface from 1996.

Windows-8-Demotivator.jpg
 

element

Member
I must have missed the ad where Amazon called it an Android device. Do you have a copy?
I'm still waiting how you consider the Kindle Fire NOT an android device.

That probably explains why iOS piracy is also rampant.
That statement counters what most iOS developers say when comparing to their Android counterparts. While piracy occurs on iOS not nearly at the levels there are on Android.

So a 4x2 rectangular box UI is now considered Metro? In that case Metro ripped off the AOL Kids Only UI interface from 1996.
yeah. quote me with no counter argument. This is going no place.
 
I'm still waiting how you consider the Kindle Fire NOT an android device.
It is an Android device. As in it is built on Android open-source. They don't market it as such because they sell it with their own ecosystem. Because its Android you can easily get the play store on there bit its not marketed as a typical Android tablet.

Also why I'd never recommend a KF of you have an Android phone. Why cut yourself off from an ecosystem your already invested on while maintaining the same OS?
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Stephen Colbert said:
I could easily see Epic porting their mobile unreal engine to this and make a showpiece game like they did on the iPhone/iPad.

Why would they waste money and resources on such an untried platform? iOS was very well established as a viable business before they jumped in, and more than anything else had a very established market allowing them to tailor the product for maximum sales potential.

At best this is a platform that will initially be flooded by mobile-game knockoffs and hand-me-downs of uncertain quality because those are the nearest equivalent in terms of pricing, scope, and technological origin. Stuff that is primarily aimed at a casual audience looking for quick and lightweight time-wasters, and not the sort of crowd who buys a machine because of its hacker-friendliness.

Its biggest problem is that the sort of audience its attracting as an idea/kickstarter is at the polar opposite end of the market to that inhabited by its supposed/likely software supporters, and most importantly the people who have been responsible for 99c gaming blowing up on mobile devices - the ultra casual non-gamer crowd.

You need to market and sell to a mass audience in order to support a product economy based on volume sales, and by taking that route you are going to shape the "culture" of that platform in a certain way.
 

xemumanic

Member
I look at this thing, and think of the Indrema and the Phantom. Just with an added spritzing of Kickstarter hype. I've no more interest in this thing than I did the Pandora.
 

Truespeed

Member
Well, I hate to give your argument any attention at all, but the way you get apps for the Fire is from the "Amazon Appstore for Android"...

The feeling is mutual. Again, does Amazon call it an Android device? I guess that makes the Blackberry Playbook also an Android device now because their market hosts repackaged Android apps. Or how about BlueStacks? Even your Windows system is now an Android device.
 

Truespeed

Member
Yeah. Amazon is smart and don't want their device lumped in with the laundry list of shit android tablets. It's still an android tablet. I mean, what else would it be?

In that case they probably shouldn't have built a shitty low end tablet made up of Blackberry Playbook spare parts. The Nexus 7 set the bar. But, I can't wait to see what their next shitty tablet experience is going to look like.
 

element

Member
So an FAQ was the source of your Amazon marketing and ads? Yeah, okay.
In an ad? No, that is my mistake. To developers? yes.

Are you trying to say that the Fire is some strange amazon secret OS that has nothing to do with Android, even though that is what they tell developers to use?

The feeling is mutual. Again, does Amazon call it an Android device? I guess that makes the Blackberry Playbook also an Android device now because their market hosts repackaged Android apps. Or how about BlueStacks? Even your Windows system is now an Android device.
you are impossible and an idiot.
 
ITs trivial to install g play on any unsupported android devices

This. A lot of people's arguments on why this will fail seem to forget that it's open source which means Google Play will make it to Ouya in one way or another surely. It should also mean that you will be able to put apps like Netflix, XMBC, etc... on there in some form. That along with the fact that it's $99 makes it a very intriguing system...not to mention those that would like to use it as an emulator.

Edit: To be clear, whether it fails for the masses or not doesn't matter, in my mind. The point being that with the above it will easily be worth $99 for a lot of people.
 

VanWinkle

Member
In an ad? No, that is my mistake. To developers? yes.

Are you trying to say that the Fire is some strange amazon secret OS that has nothing to do with Android, even though that is what they tell developers to use?

I guarantee the average consumer has no clue that Kindle Fire runs Android, and it's not marketed like that, either. As such, nobody is going to expect to play their Android apps on it. They're going to tell developers that it's running Android obviously because it IS Android; a developer is going to have to know what OS they're developing on.

However, if a consumer hears there's a new Android game console coming out, it's not crazy to think that somebody who has an Android device may expect to be able to play the games they've already bought.
 

Truespeed

Member
In an ad? No, that is my mistake. To developers? yes.

Are you trying to say that the Fire is some strange amazon secret OS that has nothing to do with Android, even though that is what they tell developers to use?

you are impossible and an idiot.

No, dumbass, it's a forked OS that's no longer Android. Usually when you fork something it ceases to become the thing it was forked from. Sure it may run apps that are compatible with the version of the OS it was forked from, but that doesn't mean it's Android. Was this explanation simple enough for you to understand?
 

element

Member
No, dumbass, it's a forked OS that's no longer Android. Usually when you fork something it ceases to become the thing it was forked from. Sure it may run apps that are compatible with the version of the OS it was forked from, but that doesn't mean it's Android. Was this explanation simple enough for you to understand?
Still Android. Core framework is Android. They will merge changes from the main branch when needed as well as extend it themselves for their own needs.

You make it sound as if Kindle Fire has nothing to do with Android, which is false.

I guarantee the average consumer has no clue that Kindle Fire runs Android
They must be really confused since the store is called "Amazon Appstore for Android".

Back to the discussion at hand. The timeline doesn't make sense on this project and their sales tactics are questionable.
 

Truespeed

Member
Still Android. Core framework is Android. They will merge changes from the main branch when needed as well as extend it themselves for their own needs.

It's their OS now. It may be Android compatible, but it's on a different development path with their own SDK's and API's.

To quote Wikipedia:

In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a copy of source code from one software package and starts independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software.
 

element

Member
It's their OS now. It may be Android compatible, but it's on a different development path with their own SDK's and API's.
Amazon doesn't have a SDK outside of the In-App Purchasing and Amazon GameCircle API. Outside of that, it is Android. Amazon doesn't provide you with a base SDK to make apps.

To quote Wikipedia:
I understand what a fork is.

I understand what you are saying. It is a fork. it is taking on its own identity, but at the core it is still Android.
 

Kibbles

Member
Wrong thread fml.

If nothing else this will make a good additional set-top box with the ability to play games, cool. Doesn't seem all that bad, though I don't see gaming being a huge priority with this device even though they want it to be. It's going to take some big developer support to make more console like games.
 
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