So umm..what is/was the Ouya?

[Edmond Dantes]

I used to always hear about this thing, but never really learned what it was, and now it seems to have disappeared.

All I know is it was a game console or something. So like... did it have anything going for it? Am I even right about what it was?

[fluid_matrix]

Here ya go....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouya

[Greg2600]

Android-based micro console. I have one, need to get rid of it actually. It was good for most emulation. Had complaints over the controller, but I had no issues. The wifi was good but ethernet was not, FWIW. Main issue was again, it was android-based, and so people chose piracy over buying anything and the platform went nowhere. The other issue was it was kickstarted, and thus by time it finally hit the market, the hardware was quickly out of date and underpowered.

[gbpxl]

I dont buy consoles whose games are download only. I want a console with a shelf life of more than 3 years

[YoshiM]

It's concept was a good one, at least on paper: a console that anyone could develop games for and a place where you cpukd "try before you buy". Those were the two big features that were tossed around, especially by Ouya as it listed it had over a thousand developers at one point. It didn't mean that ALL of them were actively developing games, it was just the number of folks who signed up for developer accounts.

It was neat at first. The games were decent as we got titles like "Towerfall", "Amazing Frogs?", "Fist of Awesome", "Nightmare Tower" along with some great emulators. I loved the concept of the "try before buy" as that was a staple of the PC gaming era that mostly dissappeared. Thanks to that I did drop some coin I might not have on titles like "Amazing Frogs?" (which I happily paid for again on PC for the much bigger version), "Just Rain" (a nice environmental background noise title that allowed you to change how much rain you wanted and from what direction), "Fist of Awesome", "Super Indie Carts" and a few others I can't think of. I got in on the Kickstarter and later bought the "black" cube with the better WiFi and updated controller.

I think when Ouya started allowing micro transactions and removed the requirement for demos is when, IMO, things went south. Not long after that, Razor bought Ouya and then things went quiet. The store is still open so you can download games but you can't buy them any more. Their credit card system is disconnected and I don't think you can buy Ouya "currency"
(though I haven't looked into anything on Razor....). Which is a shame as I wanted to buy "Towerfall" and update "Bombsquad" (awesome 4 player+ versus game that plays best with a controller).

[StealthLurker]

You could say that the Nvidia Shield TV Console (not the portable) is a successor of the OUYA in this type of Android setop box gaming/entertainment device market (I'm excluding most of the no name brand cheap chinese stuff and some of the other not as well known brands).

The Nvidia Shield TV Console is quite powerful... surprisingly powerful in that it can run Wii, Saturn, etc. emulation. Also the native games look pretty nice and supports the Nvidia LAN and cloud game streaming services.

[Jorpho]

Which is a shame as I wanted to buy "Towerfall" and update "Bombsquad" (awesome 4 player+ versus game that plays best with a controller).

Towerfall – or rather, Towerfall Ascension – is on Steam and most other consoles these days. And it's every bit as great as you remember it being. I think I got it in a bundle at some point.