Good journalism doesn't just print PR spin as-is.
27% uptake is terrible news.

What's the uptake of games on iOS and Android in general?

It's interesting to see how this story has evolved. Started with most OUYA devs being cautiously upbeat about their experiences (including their sales numbers):

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/196691/the_ouya_experience_
what_game_.php

Ends with unremittingly negative headlines

I've seen this news in other websites and it troubled me that none talked about the 73% who haven't bought. That is the key difference between iOS and Android, for example: iOS users buy more, and therefore make more money with smaller hardware numbers. That is still not the case with Ouya.

But if you are an Android developer, porting something to Ouya is incredibly simple. I, for instance, will support the console "by principle", just because it is so easy and because we (developers) do need an open console. For me, supporting it with content is the real "kickstart" :)

What are you planing on releasing on it, I'll check it out at least.

@ Aaron

Try out http://www.the-magicbox.com/ It's an older barebones news site that's pretty Japanese focused, but what's absolutely incredible is that it's so utterly free of opinion, chatter, or even headlines - just a collection of statements of facts. It's utterly transformative when the news stops all expression and simply becomes a source of up-to-date information - everything becomes immediately calm and the reader is left to draw their own conclusions, in uncoloured isolation. The user also absorbs more information - without opinionation each statement takes a few lines so you get through info more quickly.

I think it could be a great model for good journalism if it was all about information gathering and not about interpretation. Obviously selective editing would still be a problem, but if all news sources operated like this the world would probably be a happier and more informed place. But humans are argumentative social animals, and headlines sell.

There is no such thing as objective news, only news that is more or less open about how the ideas of its authors influences the coverage.

So we write about the minority and not the vast majority?

Surely we don't think the typical reader is too dumb to realize 27% is a small number?

The audience that's interested in knowing the state of affairs is smart enough to read through one line of spin. Spin isn't appreciated, and neither is counter spin, but we'll tolerate it until the world changes (never then). We probably don't need a discussion as to the merit of interpretation and hand holding - it's doubly redundant.

Thanks for the correction!

It might also be a statement on the number of emulators available for the Ouya.

OUYA's promotional campaign was "Hey come our games are free to play". Nobody should have except much more better numbers.

PS : if you're speaking french, the top (most used) french video game site jeuxvideo.com had done a "live" to show the OUYA and advise people. They pull it down, due to the quality of games, the OS, the clarity of payment...

Oh man, the DSPGaming video on YouTube about The Amazing Frog is hilarious.

I recommened you try Ittle Dew (expensive but worth it), Polarity, The Bard's Tale, League of Evil. All of these I bought except Polarity but that ws just cause I ran out of funds.

Ittle Dew is THE game of the console, really good quality, I'm going to buy it in the future. I still think its a grate console, port some of my flash(air+starling) game test and they work like charm (60 fps) with really small changes. Its cool to test the game and know that everybody its going to experience the same game.

Free to try is an awesome idea as player don't get burned that way like when there are no demos at all and if you can't come up with fun gameplay maybe you shouldn't be developing games.

It's good to see someone is still optimistic even after a hick up. I didn't really have any major issue with my order other then UPS adding a brokerage fee to mine before I could actually take posession of it but that wasn't a big deal.

Probably a non-insignificant proportion going by anecdotal evidence are in the same thinking as you

There are lots of other reasons as well why people might have an OUYA sitting in some cupboard getting dusty

- There was (still is?) a problem where if you download lots of games in one session, it causes huge amounts of controller lag. While a simple reset solves this, the first thing most people do is download a whole bunch of games, fire a couple up and get terrible input lag. That kind of first impression will make them more likely to put it straight back in the box and/or not bother with it

- While the OUYA is constantly improving and evolving, consumers expect a fully finished product. They assume that what they take out of the box the first time they use it, "that's it"

- The games that make the OUYA really shine are (IMO) the local multiplayer games. Most people will play the OUYA for the first time on their own, so not realise that (Again, anecdotally, I hear stories of OUYAs sitting on shelves getting dusty till one day, the owner's friend comes round and asks to play it. Upon which they have a great time

- The games people have already heard of (FF3, Sonic, Shadowgun etc) tend to get pushed to the front of the store because people download and play the familiar. New OUYA owners fire up the store to see a bunch of stuff they can already play on their mobiles/tablets and assume the rest of the store is like that, don't explore further and so put the OUYA to one side

I think people are over-egging the impact of emulators in these stats. Most of the emulators actually have IAP in some form (e.g. buying cheat codes, or "slow motion" time to make it easier to get past the hard parts of games that require quick thinking/reactions)

Squirrels are much cheaper, rodents demand to be paid in cheese which is expensive, squirrels on the other hand are easily satisfied with acorns.....

Should make it in Unity instead! Much cheaper! Plus you can port it to other platforms