A Number Of Reasons Why OUYA Is Good For The Game Industry

A day is all it takes to change an industry. In less than 24 hours, OUYA, a new Android powered game console raised over two million on Kickstarter towards creating a new, independent market.

Here’s A number of Reasons why OUYA Is good for the game Industry and why we’re excited for it:

We can show that piracy doesn’t have to run the show.

Gamers have another chance to show that the big-bad piracy… uh, pirate… isn’t as scary as studio executives like to think it is. Yes, piracy has haunted the game industry from day-one, and the film and music industry’s ongoing fight against the wind sure isn’t calming things down either. But here, with OUYA, we can show exactly how we want things to go.

Sure, the OUYA’s a great candidate to run emulators for pretty much every other console and handheld gaming system under the sun, barring the current batch. And who wouldn’t be tempted to return to the games we used to love and haven’t been able to find outside of a two hundred dollar trip to eBay, only for the low, low sum of free?

Or, and I’m just throwing this out there, why not charge a small fee to access a developer-sponsored emulator and offer every title under the sun at an affordable price? The work’s been done, the ROMs are out there. Make the decision to get in there and make money instead of whining and pissing it away.

Either way, we’re going to see more old games.

Anyone can make a game: every OUYA console is a dev kit. No need to purchase a license or an expensive SDK. It’s built on Android, so developers already know how it works.

Developers not currently making our favourite titles of yesteryear available, or have built businesses on the back of rereleasing slight upgrades to old games for new consoles (I’m looking at you, Japan) are about to get a real kick in the teeth.

How many times have we been offered a new release of an old title with a $20, $30, or $40 price tag attached to it? It’s come to the point where I question whether the point of a new handheld system is to show off new games or to simple trot out the old guard one more time.

Studio Execs, if you’re worried about glutting the market, take another look at spending habits on Steam. We gamers love to buy games, we’ll buy them over and over… but here’s the kicker, only if they’re cheap and available.

But most importantly, we’re going to see more new games.

OUYA’s world-class controller, console, and interface come in one beautiful, inexpensive package. All the games on it will be free, at least to try.

While targeting the AAA market has been successful for some studios, in recent months we’ve seen a number of big name studios go under, along with layoffs at some of the larger, supposedly more stable employers. With the next gen consoles focused on bigger, newer, better, it’s tough for smaller studios to make their way.

With the OUYA, independent studios have the ability to develop and publish directly to their target market: people who want to play smart games that push boundaries, ongoing episodic stories, and nostalgic titles with a twist.

All it’s going to take is for the people behind OUYA to keep doing what they’re doing.

We’re hopeful. Godspeed OUYA. Make it so.