#Ouya Fans: The Article

If you are an Ouya backer or just someone who is pondering the question if you should purchase an Ouya then most likely you have followed the drama of the Ouya unroll.  The list of things that have gone wrong, and what they have done wrong is long.  From the backer outrage of late shipments to the sticky controller button debacle, Ouya has done one thing actually right.  They have done something so right in midst of failures that it has many critics scratching their heads.  They have done something that every business wants, needs and always strives to have.  Ouya has the following of hard core, unwavering, fanaticals.  This by far is not a criticism, but an admiration that is quite amazing for a company that is surrounded by constant criticism.  

I am known as one of their biggest critics in some circles on Google Plus.  I have engaged in debate with the Ouya fanatical numerous times.   The true Ouya fans are filled with a undying hope of what Ouya will be and can be.  They are ever forgiving of the major to the minor mistakes.  They are quick to defend and quick to condemn any  who oppose the Ouya.  They rattle off a defenses for any critic as if they were working directly for the PR group for Ouya.  Some do it so well that Ouya should hire them.  

The Kick Starter

In the beginning there was the remarkable Kickstarter campaign. They showed a flashy and sleek UI with a plethora of well known, liked, Android games.  For only $99 the backers were going to get a consoles the size of a rubic's cube that will play Android games on the big screen. 
When the Ouya arrived the UI was nothing like the original promo pic.  And worst of all, none of the games like Samurai II, Shadowgun, and Dead Trigger were to be found.  Instead there was some ported games from Android that weren't that good to begin with.  Some like Pinball Arcade were poorly ported and were too laggy to even play.  
Criticism rolled out by the amateur bloggers like myself all the way up to the well known tech sites.  Ouya defended that they hadn't officially launched and that the UI was still being polished.  The fanatical defended by pointing out the same but added that the lack of games isn't Ouya's fault but the developers fault for not porting their game to Ouya.  In the eyes of some fanaticals, Ouya is blameless.  They ignore the promo pic and bring up that in the future that indie developers will make great games that don't need good graphics because the games will be awesome.  

In reality those developers didn't port due to numbers.  With only 65,000 consoles and the "official launch" being delayed, the developers of such games do not want to spend the money to port the games at this point because it is not worth it.  The fanatics have countered this argument by saying that if you want big developers to come to Ouya then you should buy an Ouya, then buy a bunch of the games in the marketplace to show the big guys that they should come over to Ouya.  It was even suggested that letters should be written.  While I agree to the latter, I disagree to arbitrary spending.  I personally have said that such a plan is like buying a Fiat in hopes of a Lexus dealership coming to your town because you really want a Lexus.  We all know that  would be crazy and would not lead to the desired results.  
The fanatics hold steady and defend such notions with passion and gumption that are quite bewildering.  One fanatic stated that Ouya "is not something that is going to be 'finished' in six months or a year, it is going to be an ongoing process."  Though I admire his passionate, unwavering defense, Ouya has stated that they will release new hardware yearly, thus his defense is rendered moot.  Additionally, if a product in the tech industry that already has year old hardware takes a year to be 'finished' then you the customer have a two year old product.  That is no way to attract customers, never less have a revolution.

10,000 plus developers

Ouya loves to promote their 10,000 plus registered developers.  Which they should.  Unfortunately this reminds me too well of someone else that use to sling around their numbers of developers.  Microsoft at their launch of Windows Phone 7 did the exact same thing.  The problem with WP7 just as they do today is that most of their developer were amateurs, hobbyist or those who lack funding to truly make a well complete game.  I know, I was one of them. In reality we were amateurs and hobbyist that were only doing it for fun and to make an extra couple hundred dollars a month.  Our apps were comical, but useless.  But Microsoft was so desperate to showcase apps that they showcased one of our apps on the Official Windows Phone podcast.  I also was on the windows developer podcast.  Yet, we made crappy, useless apps and did it all from my living room.  
Having amateurs and hobbyist developers saturating your marketplace is a problem.  On windows phone  most apps are horrible and it is difficult to find a good one. Mainly due to the reason that the established developers are far and few between on their platform.  Ouya could have this exact problem.  
Ouya is crammed with Space Invaders/Galaga clones that aren't that good.  Most of the other games are found on your IOS or Android device so you have already tried them out.  The closest thing Ouya currently has to a full well developed game is " The Bard's Tale."  Which is a game that I bought 10 years ago on the original Xbox and can be played on any Android device.  Its a good game but not one that will drive purchases.  
Even when Julie Uhrman was asked on Reddit about triple A devs, she responded "We have some new AAA's on board we'll be talking about in the coming weeks, and many other awesome games. Of course, OUYA is based on the premise that great games can come from anywhere! 
One of these games I'm excited to announce here is Towerfall (http://towerfall.tumblr.com/) by Matt Thorson, aka Matt Makes Games (http://www.mattmakesgames.com/), which will be coming first to OUYA in June! "

This was a month ago with no more mentions of big devs and mattmakegames is not a Triple A.  He is small indie dev.

I proposed this idea to the fanaticals, and one answered with "It would only take one of those Hobbyist to release the next 'Angry Birds' which is then only available on Ouya."   This is so interesting.  Angry Birds cost around $140,000 to develop.  This is far from an hobbyist.  It took a team to complete it.  Per Blue Cloud Solutions that to develop an IOS or Android game it would take $10,000 to $250,000. Even if an indie dev were able to make the next minecraft, Ouya would have to be in enough living rooms to be able to make a noise loud enough so people would know of it.  

To exemplify the dedication of the true Ouya fanatical, this same fan that was quoted above stated that "I've had no cause to lose faith in Julie Uhrman yet.  I expect to be surprised and delighted in the months to follow."

SHIPPING Dates

Originally we were told we would get the Ouyas in March.  Industry leaders said that it was impossible and they were right.  April passed, then May came.  Julie Uhrman then promised that everyone would have their Ouyas by the end of May.  She later changed that to everyone would have their Ouya shipped by the end of May.  As the date of this article, their are still those that have not received their Ouya.  

I have brought up that this was a very poor step for Ouya and that is was handled incorrectly with their MS Draw bar graphs and Friday emails.  Some on G+ say that when they contacted customer service that they were even given lies.  

I personally ran rampant on G+ criticizing the shipping debacle and promoting backer rage.  The fanaticals responded. I was told that the Kickstarter was an investment ( I don't get that.  You get returns in an investment). I was also told that it didn't matter when we got it, that it was the idea of Ouya that we gave our money for , not an actual product.  One even said that as long as they got their Ouya some time this year that it would be worth the wait.  (This last guy might be on something if the Ouya was more polished).  My favorite was from May 24, "They say everything by the end of the month and I trust them on that."

Ode to the Ouya Fans

The future of Ouya is unknown.  They still have not officially launched.  They are still polishing their UI.  The future and potential of Ouya is still unknown.  They claim to have some big names developing games in the pipeline, but one thing they do have that most do not. They have some of the most dedicated fans that any company could ever want.  This group of people will hit criticism head on with the most passionate, die hard defenses that any product has ever had.  If the Ouya ends up being only a footnote in the next chapter of game consoles, that footnote should say *the Ouya had the most dedicated fans out of any revolutionary console.