I don't disagree that it is niche. Just like mobile phone gaming itself atm is niche when you complare to dedicated gaming, even dedicated gaming.

But gamers will go where the games are. And if developers are fed up with the huge costs and expectations of the Big Three, then there are very few places left to look. I can easily see the OUYA as being the indie alternative haven for consoles. Id much rather play mincraft and super meat boy on an OUYA than waste my time doing it through XLBA.

You don't need to pirate games when they are so cheap, though im sure you will still see them. You won't see monstrous $30-60 games often, if not at all, on OUYA. People pirate for a couple reasons, one of them being because of cost. Lower that barrier and less people will feel compelled to pirate.

Which highlights one of my original points. PlayStation Mobile. Essentially it is exactly what OUYA is bringing. A free open dev platform but under a undeniable brand with an initial instal base that no developer is going to laugh at. It's the cheap app and game market home consoles have been missing while iOS and Android have been running around the mobile space. PS Mobile is already making waves with developers, maybe OUYA is too, but from my understanding OUYA is starting right now. Despite the hardware advantage OUYA will have PS Mobile is going to provide the market for the same development groups. OUYA might already be too late.

I'm going to blatantly rip off someone elses post I saw elsewhere (bolded parts are me):

"A lot of fud blogs are getting it wrong, sometimes intentionally I think.

There is no way it's a "scam" They have one of the highest profile design firms behind it, a Paypal exec an angle investor, inexile owner (wasteland 2) an investor, the CEO a 7 figure a year exec..the amount of money raised doesn't equal these peoples yearly combined salary. Not to mention NONE of them would ever work in any senior level position EVER again.

This is very easily going to cost them less than $100

You can grind out controllers for $5 a pop. (heres one for $3 [1] http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/543814771/2012_new_hot_good_usb_game.html)

The processor is $25 ([2] http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nvidia-Tegra-3-Costs-Between-15-25-11-3-to-18-9-Says-Company-236695.shtml)

RAM is $1 (link to 4gig ddr2 if you buy 5000:[3] http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/465823438/39M5791_ddr2_4_GB_tested_pc2700.html?s=p)

What's the board, bluetooth,wifi, and ports? $10 max. (heres a link to an entire kinect knock off :[4] http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/563927145/Hot_iMove_video_game_console_TV.html for $25)

The above are a bit iffy, if for nothing else than that its suspect if the kinect clone or the controllers are of any substantial quality compared to the real counterparts, but otherwise this is pretty spot on.

It's safe to say this console might be costing them $60 - $70 shipped.

Regardless of how successful it is, this is what you can expect in the way of games.

1.Emulators: Emulators are definitely going to support this. You can count on launch support. Whether OUYA allows them or not is another matter entirely. IOS doesn't and Android sometimes takes them down. But being the console is hackable, they'll definitely be there. This lends to the idea that piracy will be a major driving force for OUYA, but this can also be a major boon for OUYA as well, see furthers paragraph below for the reason why.

2.Android ports: All an android port would require is controller support. Even though OUYA may have a small user base it will still be attractive to those who would like more traction on their games. For big names like Angry Birds it's a no brainer they can afford the cost if for no other reason than presence.

3.3rd party markets: Both Steam & Onlive are on android. Both support controllers so it's pretty likely that both of these guys will port just for the presence. Gabe especially considering how he's come out against current console manufacturers. Unfortunately the android steam thing is just a way to browes your steam account and potential buy stuff, but not much more than that. Could be that in the future Steam attempts to make a real steam counterpart on android like their PC steam client, but for now its not a real game store _for_ android gaming.

4.OUYA specific launch titles: Double Fine has said they are on board. Wasteland 2, Inexile owner is an investor. Wasteland 2 is being built on unity 3 which makes a port a matter of using the proper plugin to compile. I know a bunch of smaller guys are on board but they haven't announced anything concrete. You can count me and my team onboard. I aint no-one special, but we will get every game we make on this.

This console is not meant to go toe to toe with the big three. Where it will go toe to toe with them is the Indie, back stock games. If OUYA has any kind of following emulation alone will wipe out the PS1/PS2/Nintendo catalogs. Who's going to buy back dated games at $10 a pop when you can grab an OUYA and get all and more for $100? Even at 500,000 install base OUYA will be as compelling to devs as xbl,android and ios market. The crowd maybe smaller but so will the OUYA market place, easier to get above the white noise."

Almost the exact reason why PSP was as popular as it was. For the CFW and emulation.

People have raised concerns over this being a scam? Not a good sign, but probably won't last. It just seems like a downgrade from using a PC. You can get all the emulation you want from your computer. Though the PSP was hacked rather rampantly, that isn't neccessarily considered a good thing as far as the gaming companies are concerned. 3rd parties might find this console as something not worth developing for, but there is always some software sales though only if they can attract non-pirating customers. Hasn't Angry Birds saturated yet? Practically every system has that game so I find it hard to contribute to any consumer interest, but I could be wrong. OUYA needs a ton more support and they are up against extremely strong install bases on other competiting platforms. They need something sensational to make a splash in this market.

I can only say that the only parts of the big three that OUYA would be competing against would be their indie games. In no way do the big game studios matter here. Who cares if EA, SQEE, or any of the other well known developers don't make games for this thing. I do agree that when it comes to legit game sales they need to get some good games when it initialy comes out, but they don't need to be anything from big studios. Angry Birds is still abuzz, so saturation is not quite there yet.

You also can't negate how easy it will be for developers who've already made android games to get them on OUYA, it's kinda a no brainer.

Instant game library will be a boon for it if they pull it off. Seems like that relies heavily on the developers. As far as the indie realm, what is your view on PS Mobile. I see that as the biggest competitor to OUYA and that is one of the big 3.

PS mobile could be a competitor, but not really necessarily a good one. For one, it's apparently not going to work on the phone I own right now. Nor the phone I will be getting tomorrow. Likely it will be only on SONY phones and maybe a few random others. The biggest barrier to entry imo is that it attempts to take the place of someones phone, rather than work on anyones phone, which a person really only needs one of.

OUYA is a console, of which most actual gamers have more than one of. I myself have never only owned one console from a current gen.

Aside from that, I do like that PS Mobile is open to indie developers. Much more so than most other platforms. In this though, whether it has any real potential, will be how easy it would be to port over to PSN and get onto PSV/PS3/PS4, because really the success will come from crossover. OUYA has android, the crossover potential is already huge.

The biggest potential competitor for OUYA though I think is Microsoft. They actually have a real indie market in the XBLA, even if it is dominated by big studios doing 'indie' things. They also actually make phones (Nintendo would be the odd man out here, I see no way Nintendo will ever compete in this segment) and the OS. They could make a huge push to create a platform where a developer can make a game that will work on PCs, tablets, phones, and XBOX. I kinda doubt they will though.

It will work on all Xperia and (all?) HTC phones. Sony tablets too. PS Vita will be geting it as well, I've messed around with the developer beta and played a few demos on mine. There is a possibility PS3 will have it, but considering the processor barriers it might not without a cloud solution. PS4 on the other hand could easily run it since they could include compatibility in the hardware.

It doesn't help its install base by not being an Android wide market, but I don't think Google would be keen on an attempted marketshare take over. They add PS Mobile to their own phones because they can, and HTC was interested. I don't know how many Xperia and HTC phones are out there, or Sony tablets. There are 2.5 million Vitas, and if they manage PS3, 65.3 million. PS4 will sell millions. PS Mobile has a very large future ahead of it.

Coding for PS Mobile is almost identicle to Android, using C# and mono. Every app and game will have full control capabilities to easily map and make compatible with all devices. Front touchscreen only controls for the phones and tablets, with physical controls for PS3/4 and Vita(add back touchscreen). They all have gyros I'm guessing? If they implement cameras the only devices that need an accessory would be PS3, and probably PS4.

I don't know much about XBLA indie market, I've hear bad things from developers about it. Problems with presense on the store and contracts with Microsoft. Are the dev kit SKUs any different? I'd say Sony has the same thing but I'm not entirely sure. Wouldn't the MINIS be the equivelent? Small games that tons of unkown studios have been developing. Maybe they're different, but I don't see any when browsing PSN or XBLA. Both platforms have plenty of indie games, PlayStation has taken initiatives like the Pub fund to help spurr it aswell. There might have been a discrepany between PSN and XBLA in the early years, but now they are equal.

Almost 40,000 sold now.

Last few hours of the kickstarter, which is now close to reaching $8 Million USD. 53,000 units sold so far.

They just announced that Namco-Bandai will be supporting OUYA with their core franchises. Square-Enix is going to port Final Fantasy III to OUYA. Furthermore, XBMC has been announced for OUYA.