OUYA's Critical Turning Point, then Ultimate Key Strategic Advantage

Initial Sighting and Skepticism of OUYA

So today while working on my own little crowdfunding project, I saw the tweets and news fly by about this little project. I didn't think much of it at first. I brushed it off. Then when I finally tweeted I thought to myself, "Why don't I like it?"

Then I realized it was because they said something like "business model" and "like smartphone" and "open to everyone". Then I thought "Oh, that means extremely low barrier of entry and no quality control. Then .99 cent games. I know how that turns out. Nintendo does too."

After hearing about it a little more I decided to look at the kickstarter page and saw this.

Ah... so there will be a market and an approval process. Which brings me to...

OUYA's Critical Turning Point: Approval Process Style

So this can go two ways: The smartphone game path or the traditional console game path. Let's be reminded of this very important fact. Software is CRITICAL for a platform.

The Smartphone-Style Approval Path

So what if OUYA's "market" did approval like smartphone markets do? Then this is the path where you really don't screen for quality of games or do things like check for fun and such but focus on getting more content. Barrier of entry is extremely low so you get huge amounts of developers just pouring in. Developers get to set their prices and can easily make clones of one another. And now you get a race to the bottom ending in $0.99.

Interestingly enough PC/Mac games which are a really really open platform you'd be hard pressed to find any decent game at that 99 cent price. So it can be avoided somehow. Let's look at the other side of the coin.

The Traditional Console-Style Approval Path

So then what if they did the approval where they took the time to properly do some quality control like the console people do? Well it takes a lot of work to do the proper research on games. And if your approval staff are magnitudes less than the developers out there? Well there goes the "everybody" argument.

Oh but wait... steam just announced the "greenlight" project. Ah... so we can include a little more of "everyone" in our approval process. And the greenlight project? That sounds a lot like what Desura already has which is connected to IndieDB. So it looks pretty plausible.

"Ahh... so we'll have another console then. We're back at square one again done a little better. Maybe a small war between Indies and AAA's. But in the end there is no difference." That's what I thought at least. Then I realized it.

"There is a huge difference between current consoles and OUYA!"

OUYA's Ultimate Key Strategic Advantage: No Expectation of Ultra-High Graphics and Escape from Skyrocketing Development Costs

Let's face it. If OUYA was trying to compete with existing consoles purely on graphics they would lose. However if they approve games in a similiar way that steam does and targets core gamers, they'll have the most interesting and innovative games that core gamers want to play in the end. If 2D games are treated with the same respect as 3D games are then OUYA will succeed. They will have these games from both Indie and AAA developers. Let me tell you how it's going to happen.

How it Would Happen

At first you'll see the first wave be mostly smaller dev studios and few AAA developers/publishers. The launch window comes and goes with titles released and sales made. It's time for financial reflection and that yearly review. The AAA devs look over their balance sheets and profits and see something peculiar. The smaller dev studios made more profit than the AAA people did. The AAA people certainly made more revenue with all that marketing and cool graphics... but not money.

So then there's a board meeting at AAA headquarters to figure out what happened. They compare their high-budget games to the indie games. One executive at the meeting notices something. They notice an indie game that sold just as well and priced similarly to their own. They look at that game. One person speaks.

The AAA Executive Conversation that Will Happen

"Wow that game has a lot of things that glow."

"Our games has things that glow as well. It looks like that glow effect is the only special effect in the game. We also have normal mapping, realistic looking water..."

"But man in that indie game there has A LOT of things that glow. Makes the game look flashy, literally. Looks awesome. Why does our game look so... brown and not filled with bright lights?"
"Well our graphics coders focused on getting all the special effects that are standard in our games."
"Standard huh? I wonder how much we spent on that?"

In their budget they realized that they could spend a lot less and make just as much money. So then the AAA people start to bring down their budget and earning more of a profit from each game. Since the budgets much lower than before they take more chances on innovation. Everyone starts seeing much more fresh ideas and maybe an E3 that people look forward to going to.

Then the AAA people realize that they can make more money on OUYA than the current gen systems. So more and more AAA people start leaving too. Why? It's a profit deal! Current gen systems' main titles must be 3d and have the competitive high level graphics in order for the gatekeepers to approve. Their current audience demands it. Then the current console makers would be stuck with less and less titles as the audience they attached to just became too unsustainable to target anymore.

Oh and that indie dev that the AAA execs were talking about? He only figured out how to use one special effect. It was color add. It made things glow yet transparent. Has no idea how to use a matrix. Since he only figured out one special effect he applied to whatever it would look cool on. Hence all the shiny bright effects that were absolutely abused but looked cool from the sheer number of them.

The Path saving us from Skyrocketing Development Costs

So back to the key part in OUYA's plan. It's the approval process and how they will tackle that. It's ultimate key strategic advantage? No expectations of ultra-high graphics which can result in an escape from the skyrocketing development costs. That is something that AAA publishers and devs have been looking for a long while now.

So now I sit in awe in my basement in front of my computer as I just realized what could happen in the very near future if OUYA plays their cards just right. My mind is fading and it's 3:35 AM. Maybe I'm getting a bit delusional. It just seems so unreal that maybe it's a dream.

Going to sleep so I can work on my own crowdfunding project tomorrow and maybe stop seeing visions. Let me know your thoughts! I might have missed something!