It was a little over a week ago when Ouya announced their first exclusive title, Human Element. Even though it was great news for the soon-to-be console, one exclusive title does not guarantee success, especially when it’s from an untested franchise. Well now they’ve snagged a few more titles, this time in the form of the OnLive cloud gaming service. This means that the Ouya’s fledgling game library will now have larger more popular titles that most people have actually heard of. If you haven’t been paying attention to the Ouya’s development now is a good time to start. Before this announcement some were wondering if Ouya would be capable of acquiring any noteworthy titles, but now it seems that won’t be as much of an issue.
This marks yet another successful acquisition for the Ouya, one that rounds out a game library that many felt was inadequate. When it was originally announced, the Ouya didn’t really have much to show in the way of actual games, but with the addition of the OnLive service the Ouya is looking more like a legitimate console and less like the Android only console it could have turned into.
The most impressive part of their Kickstarter campaign hasn’t been the money they raised, but the speed in which the hopeful console has grown. It’s clear that a simpler more open console is something both fans and developers were looking for.
This could also spell bad news for console developers as it seems more and more likely that the Ouya could become a legitimate competitor to the existing consoles on the market. The Ouya’s $99 price combined with a library of established titles could makes it much easier and less risky for consumers to play the games they want to play. That’s not to say that the Ouya is going to put anyone out of business, but if you’re the type of person who is interested in smaller and simpler arcade-like titles, then the Ouya may be a wiser choice than the more expensive and exclusive Xbox or PS3.
The Ouya is capitalizing on a theme that has been prevalent in the game industry for a few years now; lowering consumer risk by lowering the cost to get online and play. With a low price point and almost nothing but free-to-play games, consumers don’t have the same level of financial risk as they do with a top of the line consoles and AAA titles.
It looks very likely that the Ouya is capable of reaching $6 million in Kickstarter backer funds, even though there’s only nine days left. If you’re skeptical fear not, I’m sure at this point anyone who wants to get their hands on an Ouya will be able to do so, eventually.
