A New Challenger Has Emerged

Cowardice begets nothing.

Ouya is coming out and if you dont know about it it's pretty sweet sounding.  So far it has just shy of 2 million donated towards it's creation and I am sure by time you read this it'll have more. In fact every time I click refresh they have more money...amazing.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console?ref=live

Now small timid minds who don't drink or smoke, wear seat belts, and eat their vegetables say stuff like this:

http://kotaku.com/5924983/history-is-littered-with-the-corpses-of-failed-consoles?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

If we learned anything from Trip Hawkins we can surmise that a good idea and deep pockets won't be enough.  However, this does not mean you should shelve your plans for a new console.  Nintendo is looking like they are choosing suicide by putting out yet another under powered box and even Katsuhiro Harada (Producer of the next Tekken) spilled the beans about it having trouble matching PS3 and Xbox 360 capabilities.

The stage is set PS3 is buying Gaikai and Microsoft is keeping things behind the curtain but expect no small feat from them either...someone is going to lose.  It sucks and I am sad but some stuff we learned in gaming translates into real life-dumb choices will get your ass killed.

So with Nintendo launching what more than likely will be another dud there IS room for a cheaply priced "Mr. Irrelevant".  Ouya is set to be 100 bucks...hell yeah!  For the price of a collectors edition run of the mill shooter with DLC you can get a console.  With the rise and popularity of indie and mobile gaming as well as cheap and free to play games Ouya might have something here.

 You Must Cast Out Fear

Ouya is diving right into this and based on their kickstarter page it's looking like people want this thing.  The douche from Kotaku doesnt really seem to grasp this.  Launching a console is no small potatoes no but if the Indie market has taught us anything it's that not everyone in the world needs to buy your game in order for you to carve out some success.  I have no idea how many units will be part of the first line but even if there are only 10,000 it doesn't really matter.  They already have over 20,000 backers and not all will be getting a unit.  If I have to put myself on a list to get one no problem...who here did that for a Wii raise your miserable hand.  Good thing you can't see me raising mine.  Point is it happens even in mega corporations.

The Only Enemy Is Yourself

It looks like they're gonna get a good chunk of money but in business you can never really have 'enough' especially where R&D is concerned.  But hey if they punched the numbers and a million is what they need then they should be pretty well prepared for surprises and there will be some.  So long as this project is well managed they should at least make launch.  whatever happens after that is fate but Ouya can only defeat itself right now.  XBL and PSN mess around in Indie gaming-they're not too-too serious about it at least not yet. Hundreds of thousands and millions in Indie profits is piss water to juggernauts like them and they simply dont want to be bothered by it.  How about you?  Would you manage a business worth/taking in that much?

Fun Is a Hell of a Decider

Ultimately what will make or break Ouya is whether it will be fun or not.  I for one find 90% of AAA titles clones of each other or copying other media and as such-utterly boring.  Ouya will depend solely on Indie gaming (at least at first) and that IS kinda scary.  But then again I never dreamed video games would be a billion dollar industry with most games being what I mentioned above.  So whatever, I salute you Ouya and as a developer I am pissing myself like an excited dog for that Dev kit that comes standard.