The one thing the author fails to address is what is actually revolutionary about the OUYA: It is a TV-based console without a developer licensing fee.
This is revolutionary because on any other platform, the developer produces the software and the distributor takes a cut of the earnings, and the console manufacturer takes a cut of the earnings. (Remember all that "loss leader" talk when new consoles come out and are cheaper than what it costs to manufacture them? This is why.) By the time everyone gets their slice, you have a pit of dedicated game developers making $15k a year that have put up with distributors telling them what kind of game to make, who then ultimately get fired when they've done their job as commanded. Seems like a career you'd need to love to stick with it.
Even if the numbers don't work out in the end - if OUYA's cut is just as big as the big guys, if the CPU doesn't cut the mustard, if developers can't sell big enough numbers to stay afloat, etc. - it still seems like a worthy enough idea to back it if you're a gamer and want to see what developers could do, free of the shackles of conventional distribution. I can also completely understand people being relentless about personally promoting the console if having more gamers is actually what it needs to get the game developers to break even developing for it.
>The one thing the author fails to address is what is actually revolutionary about the OUYA: It is a TV-based console without a developer licensing fee.
This is wrong !
You will have to pay 30% of each sold copy of your game to the big G ?!?
Source: For applications that you choose to sell in Google Play, the transaction fee is equivalent to 30% of the application price. You receive 70% of the payment and the remaining 30% goes to the distribution partner and operating fees. From: http://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/bin/a...
From what I understand from the Kickstarter, Google Play might be an option for distributing your games, but Ouya will have its own store as well. If it's not sold on Google Play, you don't need to pay Google for it.
This is revolutionary because on any other platform, the developer produces the software and the distributor takes a cut of the earnings, and the console manufacturer takes a cut of the earnings. (Remember all that "loss leader" talk when new consoles come out and are cheaper than what it costs to manufacture them? This is why.) By the time everyone gets their slice, you have a pit of dedicated game developers making $15k a year that have put up with distributors telling them what kind of game to make, who then ultimately get fired when they've done their job as commanded. Seems like a career you'd need to love to stick with it.
Even if the numbers don't work out in the end - if OUYA's cut is just as big as the big guys, if the CPU doesn't cut the mustard, if developers can't sell big enough numbers to stay afloat, etc. - it still seems like a worthy enough idea to back it if you're a gamer and want to see what developers could do, free of the shackles of conventional distribution. I can also completely understand people being relentless about personally promoting the console if having more gamers is actually what it needs to get the game developers to break even developing for it.