Sunday, April 14, 2013

Ouya taking 1 month to ship to only 25% of Backers. Outrage Grows.

On Friday Ouya sent out a new Project Update to the backers on the shipping issues.  According to Julie Uhrman and  a poorly drawn line graph only 25% of the Ouya will be shipped to backers 30 days after the launch that occurred March 28.
"As you can see, each weekly shipment wave continues to grow, with nearly a quarter of all shipments out by the end of this month and larger-scale shipments going out weekly from there."

This is a different ETA then the one Uhrman gave on the day of the launch where it would take a few weeks to get all the units shipped.  And this is totally different then what was promised to the backer on Kickstarter.
Originally the backers were given estimated delivery of the month of March, but now it appears that most backers will not receive their Ouya's until the last week of May, just days before you can purchase an Ouya on Amazon. This most recent update has fueled the fire of the Backer Outrage.
Here are some of the post from the Ouya kickstarter page:
" Zubair Ashraf about 1 hour agoI really believe ouya,s strategy backfired. They shipped units to press early rather than in backer number to get press buzz. Now they are covering the mistakes. They should have shipped by backer order initially. And be transparent 
1- no google play store means more money for them through app purchases. But not good for end user 
2- be more transparent with shipping. Admit to short comings/ delays as it happens"


"Thomas Hogan about 4 hours ago

How about instead of a graph drawn in MS paint every Friday, all you do is just tell your backer the exact # of Ouyas that have been shipped. That would be a lot more meaningful, and I can make my own graph in MS paint anyway..."

"Denny Martin about 13 hours ago

I have been very upbeat and defensive about this project, mostly because I thought it is a project worth supporting. The secondary and almost as influential factor in all this is the encouraging and energetic communiques coming from team OUYA. After the last email, I feel I too need to be transparent:
As a backer, I had the expectations that not only would I be supporting a worthwhile project, but even though I paid the same as the over-the-counter price will be, that I would receive a little perk, like say receiving my unit a month or so before the public at large. I will be disappointed if after all the hype in the emails, that I receive my OUYA only days before the public release. I realize team OUYA is working hard, but YOU did ask us to give money to you when you needed it. I believe you can do better than just lip service. If it were me, I'd be working round the clock and forgoing Chinese holidays or even any American ones until I fulfilled my obligations to my backers."
" 

Todd Wegman about 17 hours ago

Is there anyway to get a refund... I do not have a good feeling about this... I should have waited to see how this thing takes off- based on what I see so far I made another poor decision- at least it only cost me $100 dollars."

"Keith Ky 1 day ago

Yeah, I'm starting to regret being a backer and especially getting the "limited" brown console (which I read would take even longer). Of course, Ouya got bigger with more press coverage so I'm sure even if they lose all the backers, it's probably less than 10% of Amazon and Walmart orders."
" 

James Higgins 1 day ago

This chart does not give any usable information. It's sort of annoying to ignore all your backers, but its actually insulting to present a graph of nonsense designed specifically to obscure any real information as transparency."

These comments are just a small percentage of outraged backers.  This backlash could easily be the downfall of the Ouya even prior to it hitting the public.  


No comments:

Post a Comment