There's Pretty Much No Reason To Buy A Ouya Anymore


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There's Pretty Much No Reason To Buy A Ouya Anymore

 

Source: KOTAKU

 

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First came the Ouya Android microconsole. Then came Mad Catz's M.O.J.O. Android microconsole. Today Mad Catz announces the M.O.J.O. microconsole will be playing host to Ouya content. I am so confused.
 
This is all due to Ouya's recent decision to allow the Ouya experience to be embedded in other Android devices. They call it Ouya Anywhere. It basically takes the software that runs the Ouya ? the storefront and such ? and turns it into an app for other devices.
 
So the M.O.J.O., a more powerful Android microconsole (it runs on Tegra 4 to the Ouya's Tegra 3 chip), now gives Android gamers access to all of the exclusive content the Ouya folks worked so hard to acquire. Plus all the existing Android games the Ouya couldn't play.
 
The M.O.J.O. console does cost twice as much as Ouya's physical presence, reduced today to $199, but it's far more powerful and comes with a much better controller.
 
Who needs a Ouya now? Nobody, really. This Ouya Anywhere initiative effectively kills any reason to buy the physical product.
 
But that's okay. Ouya CEO and founder Julie Uhrman, via official press release, is just pleased to take the box out of the console experience.
 
"Up until now, the game console experience has been locked inside a box," said Julie Uhrman, CEO and founder of OUYA. "Together with the hardware veterans at Mad Catz, we end that. Today's announcement signifies the inception of a truly open platform where independent developers can bring their creations to the platforms where gamers actually play: everywhere.
 
This is pretty much a total admission of defeat IMHO. The one thing the OUYA had going for it was its own little ecosystem. Opening that up to others really can be seen as them admitting they failed on their initial vision.
 
With that said, why MadCatz thinks anyone would pay $199 for that experience, even if their hardware is better than the OUYA's, is bewildering to myself. They clearly did not price it accordingly, again IMHO.
 
If someone is somehow still interested in the OUYA itself just PM me. I will sell my hardly used one for very cheap.  :laugh:
 
I really do need to explore what if anything the homebrew community was able to do with the OUYA itself. I am sure someone out there had to figure out some decent use for it by now. 
 
I still support the overall premise behind OUYA itself, but I think it is safe to completely say R.I.P. OUYA.  :pinch:
 
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i have one... it works great with xbmc.  It even streams my 1080p content without any problems.  At $99 you can't go wrong and they are often on sale for $75 at my local Target.

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I have one and it's collecting dust.  Crap controller, old Tegra 3.  I use it for the emulators, it's nice to play old games from other consoles...!

 

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Well an android gaming console was hard enough to sell @ $99, this madcatz model @ $199 has an even smaller chance of succeeding.

I just think that the core concept here is flawed. There simply is no demand from the gamers that would want a gaming console for an under powered device that is limited to android based games. Android as a gaming platform is not nearly as 'core' focused as would be needed to drive demand.

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Ok, maybe there is some demand, but I just dont think the demand is very high.

Until android as a platform is offering true 'core' gaming, there just isnt room for a gaming console that runs it beyond some sort of niche. Right now, its basically taking smartphone gaming and putting it on your TV.

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The only reason I would want one is for running emulators. I'm currently using an old softmodded Xbox which works really great for them, but it is kind of loud.

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There was no demand for tablets and look how that turned out. I think this shows promise but I'd rather see a system where you could play steam and android games rather than one of the two. 

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There was no demand for tablets and look how that turned out. I think this shows promise but I'd rather see a system where you could play steam and android games rather than one of the two.

The problem with that comparison is that a tablet is an all around device. Its not focused on a single use.

These android gaming consoles are focused on a single use and that means you wont see demand grow beyond that niche of gamers that want android gaming content.

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I would say selling for half the price is a pretty good reason.  Sure a device that costs twice as much is going to be better.  Personally though I'd rather wait and see if the Vita TV is going to come to the U.S. then get a MadCatz M.O.J.O. if I were looking for a micro-console at all (which is a very small market to begin with).

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"Any more" implies there was once a time when there was a reason. 

 

I have no doubt the makers were really enthusiastic and it seems they listened to user feedback, but that just might not be enough.

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The only reason I would want one is for running emulators. I'm currently using an old softmodded Xbox which works really great for them, but it is kind of loud.

Boot up XBMC and adjust the fan speed ;)

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Lack of DTS support made it not a very good XBMC solution for myself. I have a receiver and content capable of DTS, yet for whatever reason (unless they finally fixed it after months of no support) it did not support DTS. That made me fall back to my PS3 and Universal Media Server which does support DTS.

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The only reason I would want one is for running emulators. I'm currently using an old softmodded Xbox which works really great for them, but it is kind of loud.

Heh still got a couple of those laying around, did pretty well at the time for XBMC.. no HD and such but it worked.  (Retired, replaced by a central DVR which does videos now.)

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Wait, were there even reasons to buy an OUYA at all? It was an Android phone that could output to HDMI. None of the games it had were good and it had a ton of scams going on in Kickstarter that milked their development funds for timed exclusives that weren't even worthy of being called shovelware.

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