Last year’s Kickstarter darling, Ouya, is taking a stab at Black Friday with its limited 16GB console available now for preorder at $129. It’s normally $100, 8GB, and black. The limited edition console is white. The question is, “Who cares?”
How many people know what Ouya is anyway?
Okay, we’ll start with the 63 thousand Kickstarter backers who raised $8.5 last year. And those developers who aren’t developing for the bigger consoles, which are becoming more and more indie developer-friendly. So there is a following – enough so far to keep it out of Sega Dreamcast-ville, which the white console sort of resembles.
What is Sega Dreamcast? Oh, man, did I just date myself?
BUT…for just $400-500 more, and a few hours waiting out in the cold, you can get a PS4 or Xbox One. And people are doing it!
Don’t get me wrong. I love the Ouya vision. It’s very kumbaya. Free games. Developer-friendly. Very geeky. Very communal. Very eat-your-cake. In other words, it’s too good to be a successful business.
People stopped buying Dreamcast after the PS2 launch because the latter had better games and it could also play DVDs. Ouya does not have very good games – nothing that really wows like Halo or Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy. Actually, they do have Final Fantasy, but it’s Final Fantasy III! And Ouya didn’t live up to its Kickstarter hype upon launch earlier this year. It’s not a very good console.
Eventually, the bigger players will become more developer-friendly and out-Ouya Ouya’s value proposition. It’s a tough market, but there was excitement, and a niche, but Ouya failed to execute and this 16GB limited edition is an ill-fated up-hill charge.