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Ouya was an open source console. It ran on Android 41. But, after being a success, it went flat at an accelerated rate. The free software console slowly fell out of favor. Today in applications and technology Let's take a closer look at what slowly led this console to disaster.

What was Ouya?

It was about something interesting: an open console based on Android. In August 2012 it appeared on the market. In two months, it managed to raise $ 8.5 million. 63,416 people opted for the product in Kick starter. There began one of the main inconveniences.

Many donors from companies that gave money to make Ouya receive their product late. With the aggravating circumstance that they obtained it after its release on the market.

Let's remember that Kickstarter is a crowdfunding company. Namely, help in financing projects ranging from independent movies to video games. In this way, if a patron puts his money on you, you must give him the exclusivity to try it before the rest.

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What characterized Ouya?

About the technical specifications, had 1.7 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of flash memory, It had Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n connectivity, USB 2.0 port, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI 1080p, 1080i, 720p and obviously Google Play.

Among the features, the best was the price, it was $ 99. At the same time, video games had a free part. But, users found another advantage. The console was easy to hack. Therefore, anyone could develop their own game.

Actually, the developers wanted to offer a free console for everyone. Had a chance to get hacked without waiving the warranty.

Games for Ouya

At that time, the best games for this console they were Beast Boxing Turbo, Ice Rage, Canabalt, The Ball, and Final Fantasy III. Even though there was a bit for everyone, they also got to play Striker Soccer Euro 2012.

All the games had different prices, obviously depending on the company that developed them.

Let's remember that Final Fantasy is a role-playing video game. It was developed by Square. Part III of the hit series was released in 1990. The game was originally released for Nintendo. But, at the moment it can be played on Android, iOS, Wii U, Windows Phone and Ouya.

Console technical issues

What couldn't be ignored were its technical deficiencies. The principal was in command development. Ouya 2.0 was released in October 2013, a new version that included hardware to drive the bug. This was a few months after the launch.

On the other hand, the idea of developing consoles that work with Android was taken up by companies like Amazon. Later, they launched different similar products on the market. Namely, competition increased.

In the end, the slow death of Ouya ended with the console developers starting the sale, of the technical team and the development of software and hardware.

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Doom to failure

Even though the console attracted attention from the start, it was doomed to fail. There are already Android devices that allow them to connect to the TV. In this way, the purpose of Ouya was to be just a low-priced emulation console.

In North America, in its launch month, barely 19,000 consoles were sold. The number is extremely low, despite the fact that the company behind the console was dedicated to online sales. But perhaps the main problem was that the The 73% of its users did not buy games.

In most cases, they only used the console to play emulators. Android has a wide range of emulators, so a cheap console like Ouya was a more than remarkable option for this objective.

Even though its technical characteristics were not good, its price was remarkable. But, that does not keep a console in the market, but something more valuable and important, the sale of games that It did not arrive with the force expected by the company.

This console went from being the star of the Kickstarter platform to a catastrophic future. The main thing that brought him down it was poor hardware sales and poor software sales.

Criticism and competition

The success of the console was in such a way that other similar devices appeared on the market.
These were GameStick in early 2013, GamePop, and Mad Catz in June 2013.

During its pre-release, Ouya was criticized by early reviewers. The Verge described it as unfinished. There were those who wondered:

Why would consumers buy something that they emulate on their mobile phones? The ones they already had years ago. Because, Android phones were already normal at the time.

Users, for their part, Complained of delays in solving controls, button locks and disconnection of plates. Julie Uhrman, CEO of OUYA, mentioned that she was listening to criticism. I was expecting general fixes and optimizations.

What came after Ouya?

After the launch of the console, the company struggled to stay on its feet. One of them was partnering with Steam. The idea was that the games were not exclusive to the console., but it can be played on other platforms.

Thus was born Ouya Everywhere. For the moment, they had 675 titles and 100 were exclusive to consoles. But later it was bought by Razer.

However, after years of trying to save the console, 6 years after the launch, he said goodbye to the market. On June 25, 2019, the virtual store closed. The owners announced to everyone that they were saying goodbye to the market.

The users They could no longer enter purchased games or accounts, or buy other titles. In the service's FAQ, they specified: "Forge TV, OUYA and MadCatz MOJO game stores are no longer supported and will therefore be closed."

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In this way, the console became an Android decoder. TV. In this way, the failure of the console was marked in history.

A project that did not finish taking off!

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R Marketing Digital