I backed it and canceled it once the ship date slipped from January to "later" and they went from Free to Play to Free to Try.
So glad I got my money back.
It is a neat idea, since it solves the two main issues with mobile chips: battery-exterminating power consumption at full blast and shitty capacitor-popcorning cooling.
Unfortunately, they chose a craptacular SoC as their starting point, never created a proper contingency for getting way more money than originally requested, and had all the regular start-up flowthrough issues big-brand companies pay tens of millions of dollars to avoid. Not to mention that they probably should've subcontracted an established peripheral producer (even a second-tier one, like Speedlink, does a better job than trying to build and debug a controller from scratch) to make the gamepad once they tallied the final pledge.
I still think they're closer to the right answer than the MadCatz people with their Project MOJO, who succumbed to the dumb peerpressured desire to 'make it fanless'.
I hope this crowd sourcing scene dies. It's riskless funding without giving any equity.
A major reason I backed it is because I didn't like the video game scene these days. Publishers have too much power
Ah, I remember those times, back before Sony reignited our faith in videogames.
While I agree with most on "what did you expect?", I do find this only applies on (quality of) the actual product.
For a startup company they could have at least gone the extra mile to provide a more decent customer experience. How hard can it be to provide decent customer support? To keep people informed on the actual status of their order? If you actually care about that, it's really not that hard.
I don't understand your logic here.
Thanks for writing this up. Ouya was a neat idea on paper, in my opinion. I didn't back it though, because it was more of a "it'd be cool to have one" than a "I really want one" thing. I would've considered picking one up post-launch if the reviews were positive. It's too bad the whole thing fell apart.
Ah, I remember those times, back before Sony reignited our faith in videogames.
So far majority of things I kickstartered have been disappointments, so I'm really turned off by them. Its so easy to make something sound cool, but lot of these companies also have zero experience and are new to the business so they are constantly making mistakes and not delivering. I have a big stack of board/card games that have all sucked balls but sounded cool and got ton of kickstarter hype.
Interesting, it is weird to see all the hype for the Ouya die down once the next gen consoles where revealed.
It seems like people were really just hungry for new hardware.
No sympathy. You kickstarted the project and should have known what you were getting into. What's the saying? "A fool and his money are soon parted."
That sucks OP.
At least you didn't buy a Onlive System like I did. Was only a 100 but I don't know what I was thinking. Must've just wanted a neat collectors item. Because I've never used the damn thing. Controller is nice though.....but doesn't work on PC last I tried
You were expecting all games to be 100% free with no way to generate revenue?
That's what they promised. Those interviews with Julie Uhrman have disappeared from the internet since.
Backing such a device was one simple mistake to begin with.
That is without a doubt - the worst, cheapest looking controller I've ever seen.
Though it's been said a million times - and I appreciate that the OP is being treated poorly as a customer/supporter... I feel no sympathy for the backers of this train wreck.
The idea of a Console that played mobile phone games was pathetic to begin with. An emulation box was the most interesting concept - and even that was questionable. When it was first announced on Kickstarter - I clicked the thread, had a read, laughed and closed the tab. Glad I did now.
I have an OnLive system. In fact, I made the OnLive OT on GAF. I sure didn't pay $100 for it, though.That sucks OP.
At least you didn't buy a Onlive System like I did. Was only a 100 but I don't know what I was thinking. Must've just wanted a neat collectors item. Because I've never used the damn thing. Controller is nice though.....but doesn't work on PC last I tried
Serious question: What's the point of Ouya as an "emulation box" when you own a PC? Is there some aspect this thing that I've never heard?
I have an OnLive system. In fact, I made the OnLive OT on GAF. I sure didn't pay $100 for it, though.
Couch.