Do You Think North America Ready To Make A Game Console?

[LinkxPeach]

I heard rumors that Google is gonna make a game console. I'm don't know what it go be called, but I think Google should learn something from OUYA and Gamestick before making a game console. The reason why is because both OUYA and GameStick only lasted for 2 years and OUYA is still be run by Razer Inc. Both game systems had about at least 8 GB of storage data to store all your games and apps. For me, I think 8 GB isn't enough and should go up by 32 GB. Because my brother owns an OUYA console, and it has some games and a few apps on it that he was unable to add any more games, and apps on it.
Also, I own a Wii U(32 GB) and I had downloaded some games, etc. and that I can't add anymore games to it because it doesn't have enough space. So, I have to used a 32 GB USB drive to add more games to it. The 32 GB USB drive isn't full of games, but have at least 29 GB left. If that's get full, then the next game console will have to have at least 64 GB of storage data.
Plus, some Indie games still hasn't been released yet, so maybe Google can wait to released the game console later on.

 

[Roa]

The OUYA was doomed to death from the start. As are a lot of android/linux consoles that you will never hear about. There are various reasons it failed too, all of which could have been addressed and every single micro android console maker makes the same mistakes over and over and over and over again. It's rather ing painful to watch honestly cause there is no reason they can't be good or sell. People clearly want the idea of said console, but they never get what they really want. They just get another ty android box that does nothing their phone, pc, or TV box doesnt already do and better.

I've given it a lot of thought into making my own android console with help from the community here, even going as far as manufacutring schematics and prices on production, distribution, and sales. At one point, I actually had a dream pcb board on paper.

In reality, it has very little to do with the hardware and its specs, and much much more to do with the software and the community.

Honestly, I dont see google being able to tackle this. They will probably just make another box that links to the android store and load it up with features that make you forget its for playing games.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

North America ready to make a game console?

....The Xbox...?

How would you have saved the OUYA, @Roa? It seems to me it died the same reason every other failed console dies: lack of compelling games. That's not something you can just snap your fingers and fix, so I'm curious what you think you'd do better, since you apparently put a lot of thought into it.

To me, the whole idea of an Android console seems dumb. Mobile stores are known for being trash heaps... why would anyone want to base their console on that? It feels like all these consoles are automatically destined to fail, just by being centered around trash marketplaces...

 

[Deleted member 13992]

Though north america can certainly design a console, I'm not sure they have the electronics manufacturer infrastructure needed to offload tens of thousands of these a day, like what asia has. For complicated electronics of that kind of volume, you need town-sized factories. And with the tariffs imposed on components, you're either spending way too much, or need to transform town-sized factories into city-sized factories.

It's an infrastructure problem from having outsourced 99% of our electronics manufacturing overseas for the last 40 years.

 

[RollyBug]

I think these companies can't establish their brand as well as the competition. It seems impossible to tackle Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo. The masses aren't willing to wager their money on something no-one has heard of. Maybe because of that it's hard to get decent games licensed. Even if you can afford to produce the console it's a whole other challenge to sell it to this market.

 

[chance]

It seems impossible to tackle Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo. The masses aren't willing to wager their money on something no-one has heard of.

Google might be the exception. It has nearly unlimited resources and name recognition, so who knows? Maybe rumors about Google's "Yeti" project are true. News has been around a few months.

I would expect such a console (if it's built) would stream and download from Google's store, as @Roa said. And maybe stream from other sources too, given Google's heavy integration with cloud services. And since Google owns YouTube, that might figure in too.

The issue is whether it could compete with the big three (and Amazon).

 

[Misty]

I wanted to make a game console of my own, but if your poor, its always the millionas and billionairres that beat you to the punch everytime.

The google console, would not be suprised if the games were about the same quality as on the Android store *shudders*

 

[Alessio]

Google console? No thanks. I'll stick with the ones i have.

 

[OrangeBit]

I for one am not very interested in a new gaming console. What's going to be new about it, the fact that it's made by a different company? A peak has been reached in terms of technical capability, anything new in that regard is not going to be game changing for gamers.

All that's left in my opinion is for game developers to realize and reproduce the most appealing aspects of gameplay across the board. In the better days of gaming they didn't create a game with the mindset of "people will really like this", but rather "we the developers really like this" about their game. Not designed around what's most marketable to the largest audience but what they personally like.

Although, it would be great to see physical copies of games sold without the inclusion of payed DLC for a new console. North America birthed the Xbox, but has never gone into Nintendo territory with cartridge based games. That would be awesome.

 

[Xaby]

So the OUYA. There is still a community hungry for games. And I don't think, that the OUYA was a failure.
Why?
In 2012 was the Kickstarter. In this year it was very hard also for bigger companies to publish on consoles or on Steam.
In sommer of 2012 Steam decided to start Greenlight.

Yes, the Tegra 3 was not the fastest, but at this time, the most successful console was the Wii and the Wii had was from 2006 and was more in the range of a PS2 or XBox Classic.
The Tegra 3 supports Direct X 9c in a kind. So the hardware was not the problem itself.

What about games? So Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo had there mascots. E.g. Kratos, Master Chief and Super Mario.

Third Party support? Square Enix and Sega supported the OUYA. But first party? Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all do games itself.
The next problem is the "time". e.g. God of War III is from 2010 and God of War 4 is from 2018. The PS4 was out in (end of) 2013.
So 5 years after the PS4 was lauchned and 8 years after the last version of the IP.

The OUYA was out in 2013 also, had not enough games, because nobody had time, to make them. Last year came some out, but it was to late.
A Rite from the Stars: A mystical Graphic Adventure e.g. Kickstarter from 2014, no in 2018 on Steam. (made with Unity, I guess)

TowerFall was made with Game Maker Studio and was a big success.

So what now? A lot of the Kickstarter OUYA projects are now on nVidia Shield / ShieldTV and also the Nintendo Switch.
The Tegra 3 is in some way the grandfather of the nVidia Shield TV. And the Nintendo Switch is a mobile version of the nVidia Shield.

OUYA: Tegra 3, 4+1 ARM Cortex A9 (ARM7 instructions), 1 GB RAM, and 8 GB + USB-Stick space, FullHD, H.264 video decoder, OpenGL ES 2.0, some DX9c with DXT-texture support
Switch: Tegra X1, 4+4 ARM Cortex A57/A53, all ARM7 compatible, 3 GB / 4 GB, 16 GB / 32 GB + SDCards, FullHD / 4K, H.265 video decoder, OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan, DX12

For 2D in most cases OpenGL ES 2.0 and FullHD is enough, also the RAM will do it.


The OUYA was a great idea, I think. Becaue developer hardware was expensive back in the day also and SDK software was about 2500,- to 10000,- alone.
And the OUYA SDK was free. Game Maker Studio 1.4 supports the OUYA export. For Game Maker Studio 2.x we would have to figure out some of the Android export settings, but it would still work.

So if your game would run on the OUYA, it would also run on the Switch.

I saw the OUYA for ~ 20,- bugs.


Why would it be good, to run the game on the OUYA? I guess, if it has about 20 to 30 FPS, it would be easy, to have stable 60 on the Switch or the nVidia Shield TV.
But if your game has about 30 on the Switch, you maybe don't know, if there could be some frame drops here and there.

The other thing are the loading times. To optimise the loading times on a weaker hardware could be good, to save also energy on the stronger mobile hardware. So the gamers could play your game longer with there batteries.
And maybe, you have only some levels or small levels yet and they run good, but also bigger levels could easily run on the Switch later.

Testing on a PC is sometimes not easy, if the PC is a monster in comparism to a mobile device.


Oh yeah. And maybe the OUYA was ahead of its time with "downloads" only. And the Nintendo Switch didn't made these mistakes. So we could all learn from that.

 

[Dragon Studios]

A peak has been reached in terms of technical capability...

No. Not at all.

 

[LinkxPeach]

I think these companies can't establish their brand as well as the competition. It seems impossible to tackle Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo. The masses aren't willing to wager their money on something no-one has heard of. Maybe because of that it's hard to get decent games licensed. Even if you can afford to produce the console it's a whole other challenge to sell it to this market.

I agreed. Back then, during the NES/SNES. Nintendo had a lot of lst party support games like; Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Kirby, Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, Earthbound, etc. and third-party support games like; Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc. I think America should have a lot of games like 5-10 games from lst-party support and a lot of decent games from third-party support in order for the game console to sell well first before making a game console.

 

[pxwall]

thanks post