Nearly one year ago I backed the OUYA. It sounded awesome. „Free to try“, „hackable“ and cheap.

I spent $150 on the set with two controllers because I love local coop play.

It was a rocky road from the start. The console was delivered late, didn’t receive much love and less software. On the plus side it worked (for me) like a charm and to try every game before buying is the best way to sell good games.

Now, 12 months later there are 774 games, OUYA has dismissed the mandatory „free to try“ option for devs and I really feel let down. All big titles are (more or less) mediocre android ports. E.g. „The Bards Tale“ – I own that on PS2, Android and Steam. And I’ll play the Steam and PS2 Version every day over the Android one. And the release on the OUYA is…well up-scaled „low res“ graphics look ugly.

Most people seem to use their OUYA either as mediacenter (XMBC) or emulator for legacy consoles. But I don’t need or want that. My freeNAS is my mediacenter and my NES is my NES.  I wanted a new console with new games and a rebirth of game demos.

So now what? 774 Games available, most of them look ugly as f*** and even their screenshots in the store fail to peek any interest. Then there are the games I already own on other systems.  And last but not least: promised games that didn’t come. The Walking Dead to name but one. [And don’t get me started on side loaded games. I bought a console not a hackmachine… insert cartridge (aka download and install), turn on, play.  I don’t have enough spare time to be bothered with sideloads]

Not to forget the payment. Here in Germany there are no OUYA store prepaid cards available. A credit card of some kind is mandatory. Even though all games (used) to be free to try.

I really feel sad. It was a big chance for change but somehow it failed.

For now I’ll let the little box sit on my desk. Powered on every 2 months hoping for something new and good. Hopefully something good will end up on it.

I’m off.