Ouya off to a bad start?

[andrew8798]

Polygon visited a number of retail outlets today and found scant evidence of a brand new console hitting the streets. At one Best Buy, a helpful assistant said he was sure there was one in the back-room, but returned empty-handed. Another store had six in stock, but had not sold any as yet.

A GameStop offered a single Ouya poster at its entrance, but the guy behind the counter said "no-one has ever asked me about Ouya, not once". Another GameStop we visited had delivered its two pre-orders and did not expect to get any more in stock, unless attached to an order.

We did not see any demo units. One store manager at a Best Buy said he reckoned there would be a demo unit arriving in a few weeks.

We called five more GameStops around the country. None of them had any Ouyas in stock. None of them had demo units, or knew of any plans for such.

Four stores said they had received enough Ouyas to fulfill pre-orders and suggested we come down to the store and order online for free shipping. "Bring trades," said one employee. At the fifth store, an employee said, "Oowa? Never heard of it." There didn't seem any point in continuing. The message was always the same.

Target is also listed an official retailer. Its online retail site says the console is not available in-store or online via its website. It is selling the controller and gift-cards.

-Polygon

[Malcolm]

Wow, that's pretty depressing...

[Bam Neeley]

Is this surprising? Has there been any mainstream coverage/advertising at all?

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

It gave us the best unboxing I've ever seen.



But yeah, I've seen no advertising at all for it. Bit of a crappy concept TBH, who wants phone games on the TV?

[Deleted]

This thing sounds like a disaster

[ToyfareMark]

Most people who want this more than likely bought it online.

[WBL a.k.a. Mountie II]

This sounds like the penultimate case of releasing a system too early without the proper software library to back it up.

[Push R Truth]

This thread might be the first time I've ever heard of it. I had no clue what the hell this thread was about until I read the first post

[A Platypus Rave]

I saw a total of one sitting on a random shelf near the DVDs I'm best buy on Friday... With like no information on what the hell it was.

I had heard of it once or twice but was unaware it was anywhere near ready to launch.

[Fiddleford H. McGucket]

Ashens did a Review of one that he got from a secondhand store.

2 weeks before (Official) release.

Not exactly an auspicious unveiling, Someone who DID want one apparently purchased one of the earliest models directly from the Kickstarter and was so unimpressed (After donating enough to get one) that they took it to a secondhand shop.

[xCompackx]

Jun 30, 2013 9:13:06 GMT -5 "Gentleman" AJ Powell said:

It gave us the best unboxing I've ever seen.



But yeah, I've seen no advertising at all for it. Bit of a crappy concept TBH, who wants phone games on the TV?

From what I remember of the buzz surrounding the KickStarter campaign, people more liked the concept of a "indie" game console. When you strip away the infinite-runners, Angry Birds/Fruit Ninja/Cut the Rope stuff, and the knock-offs that plague the Google Play Store, there's really not much you couldn't get elsewhere.

[Red Impact]

Most people already have devices that can play these games, so it's a niche that only exists for people who want mobile games but for some reason don't want to buy a phone to play those games. An indie console is fine in theory, but there's logically not going to be a big market for it when it's no easier than just playing on your phone in your living room. And from what the unboxings shows, it's also penalizing what early adopters they have, which is never a good thing.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Yeah, unfortunately from what I heard, the general consensus on the OUYA seems to be "well that was disappointing". It just doesn't seem to deliver on its promises and be overall a pretty weak system.

Then again, I wasn't interested in it to begin with.

[Johnny B. Decent]

Jul 1, 2013 9:08:56 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

This thread might be the first time I've ever heard of it. I had no clue what the hell this thread was about until I read the first post

[Bravo Echo November]

I have yet to see one commercial or print ad for this device. If I didn't keep track of this extensively I wouldn't of even known it existed.

[crowwreak was WRONG]

Jun 30, 2013 9:13:06 GMT -5 "Gentleman" AJ Powell said:

It gave us the best unboxing I've ever seen.



But yeah, I've seen no advertising at all for it. Bit of a crappy concept TBH, who wants phone games on the TV?

Jesus Christ, I've seen AVGN videos with less reaching to complain.

Especially the bit about the controller, and as someone who's played an Ouya, that controller feels like a 360 controller if the d-pad actually worked.

[mizerable]

I'm kind of thankful it's bombing. Nothing kills the market more than over-saturation of consoles. Three brands are enough.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Jul 1, 2013 11:41:58 GMT -5 mizerable said:

I'm kind of thankful it's bombing. Nothing kills the market more than over-saturation of consoles. Three brands are enough.

To be fair, it would be interesting to have a purely indy system, especially with Microsoft making it such a huge pain in the ass for indy developers to release their games on the Xbox One (yet another way they're ruining their own system), but this isn't the way to do it.

[Hawk Hart]

Jul 1, 2013 9:00:10 GMT -5 WBL a.k.a. Mountie II said:

This sounds like the penultimate case of releasing a system too early without the proper software library to back it up.

It's the next to last case of that? What? I'm sorry but you just very deeply confused me sir.

[Non Banjoble Tokens]

My brother donated money to the kickstarter campaign and got his before the release date, and my other brother just bought one the other day. I think my favorite thing about it is all the console emulators you can download for it. I was playing a lot of old school NES games one night.