Angela Natividad is a freelance copywriter, journalist and strategist based in Paris. She co-founded AdVerveBlog.com, a blog and podcast about ads and design, and writes MarketingProfs' “Get to the Point!: Social Media” newsletters. She likes people and animals, but not as much as books. Tweet her @luckthelady.
James Martin is the community manager of music & TV tradeshows midem & MIPTV/MIPCOM. He edits their respective industry news & trends blogs (blog.midem.com & mipblog.com) and also covers video games and technology for French cultural weekly A Nous Paris Tweet him at @jamesmart_in
Stuart Dredge is a freelance journalist based in the UK. He writes about digital music for Music Ally, and about apps and mobile for The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Appside, as well as his own Apps Playground site. Tweet him @stuartdredge
Android console Ouya makes a million in 12 hours. But will that be enough?
Ouya, the Android-based console which tech blogs have been tripping over themselves to cover just now, has raised a million dollars on - you guessed it - Kickstarter. Could this be the end of gaming as we know it?
YES…
- It’s backed by some heavyweights, namely Yves Behar, designer of the Jambox, and by Ed Fries, one of the three original creators of the Xbox
- It offers free or nearly-free games on your TV; the same ones you can get on Android phones and tablets, but in big-screen glory
- It costs just $99
- It has a nifty-looking menu system, albeit totally copied off Xbox 360’s
- Few other Kickstarter projects have raised so much so quickly (the initial target, set 12 hours ago, was $950,000)
- Most importantly, traditional gaming is f*cked. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony games cost too much to make and to buy. Angry Birds and co have completely disrupted that system, offering addictive mobile gaming for free/€5 a pop. It only makes sense to apply this new ethos to the lounge, especially as the big 3’s sales are hurting bad, waiting for the next generation of consoles
- Cliffy B, the genius producer of blockbuster Gears of War, is just one of the many gaming stars raving about Ouya right now, on Twitter and elsewhere. That’s some high-level support.
BUT…
- Played many Android games? They’re mostly rip-offs of more famous console games (as the bug developers are tied to their traditional platforms). Plus the platform is buggy compared with iOS. Mid-game crashes, anyone?
- The history of gaming is littered with consoles that tried to take on the incumbents and failed. Remember the Jaguar? Or the Dreamcast? Even supposedly-revolutionary cloud-based console/system OnLive is failing to make waves right now
- Console and game development is ridiculously expensive. Legendary game maker Tim Schafer recently raised over $3m to make his studio’s new title: he himself said it wasn’t a huge amount in gaming terms. Ouya will burn through that million in a few months.
So whilst we warmly welcome a new player to a huge gap in the market, Ouya’s work is very much cut out. Good luck, guys & gals…
