First Ouya reviews are in. And they are...

...poor. What a shock! And THIS is why I refused to back it. I'm not sure what people thought this was going to be but a cool console it was not. The IDEA behind a publicly funded, $99 open sourced console was interesting. Not the actual thing. It's only early days and they did say this is a long term project so I won't write it off instantly but will kickstarter funders? Will gamers? They aren't known to be a patient bunch.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/4/4180242/ouya-review

The Verge - 3.5/10

Ouya isn't a viable gaming platform, or a good console, or even a nice TV interface. I don't know what it is, but until Ouya figures it out, it's not worth $99.

Engadget -

http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/ouya-review-founding-backer-edition/

So, is the OUYA a revolution in console gaming? No, it isn't -- not yet. But it's early days still. As of this writing there are roughly two months until the system launches at retail -- time enough, we hope, to flesh out the interface, fix the controller and maybe, just maybe, line up a few new games worth getting really excited about. We'll be back with a full review of that version when it ships.

so i've only had a look at the verge review, but that's a pretty rough assessment. if ouya's more interested in getting the thing out the door than producing a fully fleshed-out experience- they're going to be working from a 'coming-from-behind' vantage point. and as a new player attempting to bridge two highly competitive markets (console and mobile games), i don't see them coming out alive unless they can iterate and improve at a lightning pace. as soon as the new microsoft, sony, and apple products come to market...cue the street fighter 4, "K...O...!!!"

lol

Wait people are reviewing consoles now? What does the PC get? A 10?

@brodehouse: I see what you did there, but it's pretty easy to find PC reviews on the net.

I could have told you this a year ago

The Verge reviews PCs, though? And more importantly, assigns scores to them? Do they have scores for the Vita? Will there be scores for the PS4 and Microsoft Thing?

3.5 is not bad for garbage.

Well, it's not really garbage, it's just completely unnecessary.

i mean if we're getting into semantics, they review laptops on the reg. i think their interest in this though is primarily from it's cultural cache- it's a high profile kickstarter project (much like that pebble watch) that has deep roots in the mobile market.

i just need a movie player app like xbmc and a dlna player and it will be well worth the $99 already... and i need for it to arrive any time now....

Yes. Vita got an 8.5. WiiU got a 7.

But they've got the exclusive television version of FF3!

"The A button is where B should be, and O is where A typically is"

Sure, unless you've ever used a Nintendo system. The A button is in the same location as on Nintendo consoles and handhelds. I'm not going to defend the rest of the buttons or the use of A to go back, but A's placement isn't that offensive.

Hahahahaha. About what I expected, really. Ultimately it doesn't matter, it seems to me the majority of people excited about Ouya were excited about playing ROMs on their TV and I'm sure it'll serve that purpose well.

Which you can do anyway.

No shocker. Bet they don't even make it until next year.

Not at all surprised, and anyone expecting a miracle console at such a price will surely be disappointed.

I don't know. That's kind of what I expected. I think we all knew it wasn't going to be some life changing device. It's just a skinned android console. Who's really shocked that the premise is as exciting as the execution?

REALLY glad I lowered my $100 kickstarter money to $1.

QFT

According to The Verge, finding ROMs on the Internet is too hard. Waaah.

I'm reading through it now and some of the points being brought up in that review are just stupid.

It's not even fully skinned. The Settings app is straight-up Android. I thought they'd fix that before release.

@Metal_Mills That's hysterical. Are they also the guys who have the 'we'll go back and edit review scores depending on how the life of the product goes' policy? Or is that Polygon?

How...expected.

@brodehouse said:

Mine does, yours gets a 6.

In other news, at least they got it out. Remember the Indrema and Phantom consoles, so good on em for actually getting something out. But as they stated in the podcast this week, developers want to know how they can make money on a console. That dictates how much work they will put into it. And from what the guys were discussing, it just is not appealing.

I don't think that anyone except the developers ever thought this was going to be anything other than an emulator box and a toy to tinker around with.

Honestly, this would probably only be good for those people - but they already have things that can do that. Hell, I have a modified original Xbox that works great as a combination NES, SNES, Genesis, GBA, N64, etc., plus some other things, and if that fails I've got a PC that does those things and more.

holy shit it made 8 million dollars?

I expected this, any promise the Ouya has is in either it's future or the future consoles it inspires. It certainly isn't in the console itself.

Well duh.

I can't wait for it to be the world's most manufactured piracy/emulation box in... I don't know. Eight months? Six? Can we get a pool going?

Put me down for 10 months.

Is emulation actually good on Android?

The fact that it doesn't have a whole lot of games getting excited about has been evident for a while now, and it doesn't seem to be getting any other ones as it nears launch. The part about the controller and the interface sucking is new though, and a shame I guess.

I never much cared about this console anyway. The homebrew "scene" around this console might still turn out to be something interesting though.

Dat piracy.

lol

android gaming. aka crappy emulators and laggy game loops

Not sure what I expected, but like everyone else, not surprised. How can anyone be? Consoles are expensive to produce as well as support. This is kind of like a really crappy computer running Android. Plus, if you want to play Android games on the big screen, I imagine some things can be enjoyed by using a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. Maybe it will take off as an emulation system. Maybe North Korea will buy the entire production and cluster Ouyas together to create their version of a super computer.

There are many emulators that work very smoothly on my phone.

But then again, my phone is more powerful than this POS.

Seriously who didn't see this coming? I can't believe people were arguing against me when I said it would be worthless in the announcement thread.

What's wrong with reviewing hardware? People review graphics cards, monitors, keyboards. Why not a console? And that's polygon you're thinking of.

Huh, reviews?! I'm confused.

negative 5 out of 10.

It will get better, and probably find it's own little niche that keeps it afloat like OnLive did. If it has good emulators and solid streaming capabilities this would be a great alternative to a Roku.

"Worst of all, it makes buying things impossibly easy — you enter a credit card when first setting up your Ouya, and there are often no confirmation boxes or checks against you spending thousands of dollars. Oh, you hit Upgrade because it's right next to Play and the controller's laggy? Perfect. Thanks for your money."

This part in particular sounds nuts. Judging by the comments there are a lot of coders murmuring about how the way it works makes it uniquely ripe for exploitation.

Is it really fair to judge it before anyone has had a chance to develop games for it? Everything on it at the moment are Android games updated to use the controller instead of a touch interface.

I'm not expecting it to be a particularly appealing console, but outright dismissing it at this early stage is pretty dumb.

Maybe this will stop morons asking for every kickstarter game to be ported to Ouya.

yeah- it's silly to write it off. but one can certainly hedge one's bets and wait to see how it fairs down the line. although i'm afraid we might have a doozy of a catch-22 on our hands (devs won't develop without a substantial installed base, and an installed base won't come without substantial devs).

Well, what did you expect? It's an Android phone without the phone part masquerading as a console.

I agree, very few consoles are even worth owning within their first year.

Reviews are for the time being, they both say as it is RIGHT NOW is not worth it. They do mention the future potential for Ouya, but as a costumer why would you buy a product based on "potential" ?

Just wait and see if that potential is actually reach.

I tend to purchase things and look forward to their potential and how they'll fit in with my lifestyle. It's the only reason why I really have a 3DS, Roku, and a few other things. I'm not going to write the Ouya off yet.