Quote Originally Posted by YoshiM View Post
It looks like the two developers are the ones that make things look a bit "shady" to take advantage of the promotion. I can't see anything that points to the Ouya group as being the ne'er do wells. And if that's true, that's pretty sad.

Bojay: I gotta ask-are you on some sort of crusade against the Ouya or what? It seems like you (amongst others) are out to just take this system across the coals like its some false prophet spreading console heresy.

You asked who this is targeted at and the obvious answer is "any gamer who wants to play something different on their TVs and don't want to drop a ton of coin on the softs". The biggest banner of hate I see the most is "it plays stuff you get on your phone". So what? Many of the titles I've seen or played that are smartphone games I didn't know their origins. Why? Because I don't play games on my phone. What few I tried were either conducive to a touch screen (ala Angry Birds) or a quick try to see if the action was comfortably controllable on a touchscreen (like Wolfenstein 3D). I don't really do handheld but I like the concept of playing those games on a larger screen without having to pay a couple or more Benjamin's for a quality tablet that can connect to my TV and allow me to use controllers I may or may not have to go out and buy. $99 and games for free to try or play-sounds good to me. True I have a PC where I can do the same things and have the power to play modern AAA titles but I use that machine for work-type stuff. It's also upstairs in an office setting that I'm usually in 8-9 hours every week day-I'd rather sit on my couch.

I'm interested to see where Ouya goes and I remain realistically optimistic. I'm not drinking the Kool-Aide nor am I digging in the mud ready to sling. If the cheers and jeers were even it wouldn't be a big deal but there is so much negativity from those who never tried it (but that IS the law of teh Intarwebs these days) that it could kill a project before it really takes off and all that's left would be disappointed customers who got shafted by the damage of the digital hate tsunami and those loud protesters doing fist bumps as they get to say "I told you so".
I'm not on a crusade by any means. In fact, I backed the Kickstarter only a couple of days into it and received my unit pretty promptly after launch. Having said that, I don't think Ouya or any other product should get some kind of pass simply because the team behind it uses all the right buzz words.

I do own one and I have tried it. Lots of the people who aren't overly impressed have tried it. There are 50+ Ouya units for sale on Ebay and almost all of them have been used. There are many more available for sale on various forums and websites. That has been the case since shortly after launch. I'm sure there are some who haven't used it who are posting negative things just like there are probably some defending it who don't own one and never will.

My criticism of Ouya stems primarily from the fact that there is no substantive difference between Ouya's business model and every other company they are comparing themselves to. It just reminds me of the kid at school who goes around claiming to be cooler and edgier than everyone else but turns out to be just as dorky and insecure as the rest of us. They are essentially selling an inexpensive piece of hardware and hoping to make their money on a cut of software sales. They also plan to sell you a new device on a fairly regular basis. That's the Apple and Google and Sony and Microsoft model and there is nothing open and independent about that.

I understand that the Ouya fills a need you have. I just don't think that many gamers have that same need. There is just so much great independent and creative content on even the largest consoles like the PS3, Xbox 360 and WiiU, that I just can't see many gamers wanting to play essentially smartphone and tablet games on their TV when there are so many other richer and more satisfying choices on the other platforms.

At the end of the day, I would rather that people have an open and honest dialogue about products like Ouya instead of constantly being timid and worrying that others will think they are somehow anti-independent gaming if they point out the fact that the Ouya falls well short of being some new and open business model.