What does this mean? Consider what the Ouya stands for. It is a crowd funded console - the people definitely wanted it. Check the Kickstarter final tally:
The important lessen here is that Ouya listened to what the people wanted from the start.
-Let the console war BEGIN-
AAA titles have become homogenized with a cookie cutter business model to sell you the same game over and over. Big publishers are again being accused of being anti-consumer, especially by their employees. This short documentary by CleverNoob addresses this issue in gaming.
Microsoft must not have asked ANY consumer what they thought about the new XBox One policies and changes because I haven't heard of anyone embracing them. Even though they confusingly waffled on the issue, there's still a console killing controversy forever surrounding Microsoft because they didn't ask the consumers what they thought about the idea.
Ouya is doing the opposite, selling the console for the price of a controller and then giving away games to play out of the box! Instead of polished predictable shooters, you don't know what treasure or trash you're about to download on Ouya. The discovery is the most fun thing about it. Treasures like Saturday Morning RPG and The Ball await you. For free.
There are other gaming experiments coming to market soon.
Nvidia Shield is attempting to sell an Android phone with an Xbox360 controller attached to it for $300. We already have smartphones in our pockets. See the problem?
Piston aka Steam Box aka Xi3 will be priced more like a PC than a gaming console, but packed with the power of Steam might be worth it. The games I buy on Steam barely work on my PC (laptop) if at all.
So are the big consoles really scared of the little guy? Enough to play dirty at E3 where the Entertainment Software Association parked a giant truck blocking the Ouya Park then called the cops. Perhaps they didn't like the tagline on Ouya's sign which read "Open to all."
Back on Xbox, XNA is a bitch for indies to publish on, because doing so only benefits Microsoft. Because of this greed and oversight, XNA Studios is being killed (in 2014). More incentive for developers to go the Ouya route.
Being honest and upfront with the consumers is as important as the variety in the games we play. Now we the people have a home console platform to publish games on easily, for better or for worse. Vive la revolution!
