The indie gaming console that went from being 2012’s Kickstarter darling and a somehow revolutionary product to a disappointment, has now been updated with a refined controller and a boosted Wi-Fi.
Many people who backed the project on Kickstarter were disappointed when they found out that they would receive their open-source gaming console later than the ones buying it from retail stores. On top of that, Ouya taught its Kickstarter backers a tough lesson: they got the beta version, while the retail one was the finite product. Despite all this, Ouya did not disappear of the face of the Earth. On the contrary, the manufacturer had quite some great sales and even introduced a white limited edition last year, back in October. The new Ouya comes in black, but it remains to be seen if the new features justify the higher price.
Among the major problems of the first generation were a terrible controller lag, a weak Wi-Fi receiver, no visible download queues, hidden prices in the store, and the inability to truly expand the storage. The old Ouya came with 8GB of internal flash storage, and the manufacturer only extended this to 16GB in the white limited edition. Fortunately, the new Ouya also comes with 16GB, so space restraints won’t appear that quickly.
The weak Wi-Fi receiver also deteriorated the whole experience, but luckily, the manufacturer claims to have fixed this problem, as well. Not at last, a lagging controller can ruin gaming on any console, and I understand why people were unhappy with the first Ouya. The new controller is said to be more responsive. Still, this doesn’t stop people from being skeptical, and some even say that Ouya replaced its square wheel with a triangular one, meaning that the improvements are really insignificant, and they can’t turn Ouya into a successful product.
The new Ouya is available now for $129, but the old $99 will still be available. Amazon sold the first version right after the official launch, but the new one is nowhere to be seen. Still, the price of the new one is still pretty decent, when compared to the $344.95 white special edition. Chances are Ouya won’t manage to change people’s minds, especially since now it has quite a lot of competition, both better priced and with better technical specs.
If you liked this post, please check Ouya, the game-changing open-source Android console and PlayJam’s GameStick, one of Ouya’s competitors.
