CambriaRising
Member
Ouya is going to fail hard.
not in a trillion years
It got $8 1/2 million, only needed $950,000 to become a real product. The one-time expenditure to produce a complex piece of electronics at a factory in China or Taiwan is $100,000 to $150,000 (with 60,000 pre-preorders that they already have the full money from, that one-time $150,000 cost is only $2.50 per $99 unit, though some people paid a lot more than $99). After that it's all parts, which they can easily do for well under $99 since they are using all off-the-shelf parts.
As for an ad campaign, their Kickstarter was a great start at marketing, because of all the records it broke and how many people forked over money for it (it's gonna start with a base of 60,000 owners 1 to 2 months before it even hits retail). And that was without spending a dime on marketing (well, they had to make that video...) And as for convincing stores to carry it, both Gamestop and Game have said they would carry it.
And don't forget that the founder worked at IGN so has a lot of contacts through them for marketing, and one of their consulant investors is Ed Fries, who was in charge of the XBox project at Microsoft. And the system and controller designer also has done design work for Herman Miller, PUMA, One Laptop per Child, Jawbone, MINI, See Better to Learn Better, General Electric, Swarovski, Samsung, Jimmyjane, and Prada. Their lead Engineer worked at Amazon, specifically working on the Kindle. So sure, nobody's heard of Boxer8 (the company behind Ouya), but their team is far from unknown.
A Kickstarter campaign is FAR from constituting the advertising blitz that will/would be needed to put a product like this on the map for people.
How many countries will it advertise in? Will it use TV? Radio? Posters? Billboards? Online? Are they going to use an advertising company or try and make the commercials themselves? Will the ads be in places of high viewership? What is it exactly that will draw people who don't pay attention to gaming boards and have probably never even heard of Kickstarter? When GameStop says they will -likely- stock it, how much do they mean? A whole wall of Ouyas? 1 or 2 units per store? Online only? Lots of things can get -into- a few store chains - it doesn't mean people will actually buy it en masse.
How does 60,000 owners (who have already paid by contributing to the start-up funds) compare to the millions and tens of millions of owners for things that already target the different audiences that this thing -maybe kinda vaguely- is aimed in the direction of, and how does the product attract developers?
Do you really think people care that one of the people involved worked on the Kindle? For that matter, how many employees do they have and how much are they getting paid? Is the whole project going to be on the back of one engineer? What's the upkeep on whatever facilities/headquarters etc. that they have? That production figure you quoted produces how many units? How much will it cost to create enough for the incredible instant demand we're supposing in this thread? What are the distribution costs? Do they have repair services? Warranties? Call Service Centres for people experiencing problems? What about licensing? Lawyers to deal with the inevitable legal issues that pop up?
There are a ton of different expenses involved with doing something like this, and those things will add up quickly. 8.5 million is enough to get it out the door in some form maybe, but those funds will drain very quickly if the project doesn't find a sufficient audience to sustain it in time.
What's an Ouya?
Define well.It probably won't be as successful as the Wii was. We're forgetting just how big of a hit it was. Nevertheless, I expect the Ouya to do well. None of the competing consoles have bothered to make a low-cost option, leaving a very large hole in their lineup. FFS, PS3 is getting more expensive, not less now. Ouya has quite a lot of room to breath.
Woah is the system really that small? I thought it was like the size of a small wastebasket. Sitting next to a controller really gives it scale.
I'm sure these are just 3d mock-ups, but is there any validity to the designs and scale present?
I honestly expect that Ouya will be doomed to emulator box / gadget-nerd status.
I saw a lot of similarly-minded people when I worked in retail, and I know tons of people who had never bought a console before who owned a Wii (and contributed to the abysmal attach rate after abandoning it like any AS SEEN ON TV gift). It was sold on shows like Today as a video game without the health detriments that people perceive video games to have.
Now I can play Angry Birds on my HDTV for $99
You joke but I almost anticipate people begging for cute small games that make inventive use of the WiiU touch pad in lieu of third parties not making substantial use of it. iOS shovelware would be perfect.
Is that the prequel to a game that doesn't exist?I just don't see any way that the Ouya can be successful. There's barely a market for it, for one thing. I think it needs strong exclusives in order to have any chance of not failing hard. I'm only aware of one exclusive so far.
Its gotta have a wii sports caliber game and marketing and appeal.
edit: I dont think ouya would be in old folks homes.
Ouya won't even take Dreamcast's place.
Define well.
How much Ouya do you think there will be out there?
A good enough definition but I don't actually believe it will achieve it.There is no reason it can't reach the same level of success as a Roku or Apple TV device. Which should be something like a few million units per year. I'm hesitant to say lifetime numbers, since they could easily iterate this quickly like Apple does with its cell phones. It or a future successor shouldn't have a problem getting to those sales levels and maintain it for a while.
Unless the company runs out of money and folds for some reason, the biggest threat I see them facing would be a company like Apple releasing a similar product. Ironically I see the current console makers equally vulnerable if not more so.
So more than 2 million and less than mighty Wonderswan.Ouya will sell about as much as the Ngage
There is no reason it can't reach the same level of success as a Roku or Apple TV device. Which should be something like a few million units per year.