Ouya, a revolution in the making – Part 1
Only five days remain until the Kickstarter for the upcoming $99 Android powered console is funded and fan backing ends. It’s incredible that the project has managed to raise over $6.5 million with almost fifty thousand backers and there are still five more
days to go. It is estimated that the Ouya Kickstarter will cross $7 million in funding in the remaining five days.
This sudden jump in popularity shows that there is a huge demand for cheaper gaming hardware as the current top three consoles cost more than $200 and the games available usually go for around $60 when new. The fact that not every game has multiplayer to
extend its life, most gamers find it absurd to shell out $60 for a single-player only game that they are likely to complete in hours and will have no use for it ever again. This is one of the reasons why there has been a sudden boost in mobile gaming recently.
Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman has said that she loved playing games on the television and had noticed that recently because of the extremely competitive console market and the ease of development for mobile platforms, there has been a shift in trends towards casual
mobile gaming. She believes that given the proper hardware, those developers would be interested in developing the same casual games for Ouya as well.
Uhrman says that Indie developers were lured to the PC because of the open nature of the platform and the lack of restrictions like those which developers have to face while developing for consoles. She believes that since Ouya is an open platform as well;
it will also attract all those indie developers and maybe core developers as well who are finding it difficult to compete with the giant publishers.
Julie had no comments regarding the parental control features that would be available in Ouya as she said that the team is currently busy with creating the software for the $99 console and right now there is no news regarding that specific feature. However,
the team is aware of the potential threat and is looking into it. It is likely that mature content would end up on Ouya since it’s an open console so it falls on the Ouya team to add some content filters into the console software so that the device would be
safe with kids.
Uhrman believes that there is room for a fourth console in the market because Ouya will be targeting a niche audience. She believes that consoles are doing better than ever but all three of the top manufacturers are focusing more on the business rather than
the actual gaming experience for the user and this is where Ouya will shine. The Android powered console was not designed to turn over a profit for the creators, the idea was birthed by gamers who were not satisfied with the current state of console gaming.
One thing is for sure, this team has picked a great time to release the new console as Nintendo’s Wii-U is likely to come out this holiday and will probably be priced above $250 where as Sony and Microsoft currently have shared no plans to release their
next generation consoles anytime soon. This means that Ouya could gain a significant market share because of the $99 price tag.
Continued in Part 2
DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of bettor.com.
Tags: