Ouya controller price jump. Why?!?
Well, I decided to get the gaming console that sounds like having sex with a crazed Canadian girl from the U.P. and reserved Ouya at the local Gamestop because my friend works there and it helps out with his numbers (If you guys know anyone at a GameStop and you want to make their jobs easier , reserve an odd-ball system like an Ouya). And when I asked about the controllers I came to the realization that the controller price shot up another $20. If you did the April pre-order you could get an extra controller for $29 which is fair considering the controller is nothing more then a Bluetooth controller with a touchpad. but now they've shot up to $49 which is half of the cost of the gaming system.
I found out later that the Ouya controller is going to be made out of aluminum instead of the usual plastics. This worries me a little because the reason why controllers of the past didn't use metals is two reasons. Reason 1 is the paint scratches really easy anyone with a cel-phone that didn't have it in a protective case can attest to this. And Reason 2 is it's a wireless controller, and encasing a controller in metal doesn't help out with wireless connectivity. I don't care if it's the latest Bluetooth technology it's still wrong to get metal near any wireless device operating on the GHz bandwidth.
Now, I could sit there and throw a temper tantrum about it. But why really? None of the lead Ouya titles are going to be couch co-op/multiplayer because of the android platform they are derived from. A lot of android games aren't something you have groups of people around watching a phone. Thus when you see developers porting like crazy a lot of them aren't going to have the 2-4 controller charm behind them. Perhaps down the road. but that is about it.
If there was a lead title similar to smash brothers, or a good FPS split-screen, or hell even a good port of bubbles or Bomberman to Ouya. perhaps it's worth throwing the extra $150 for 4 controllers. but I think at most I may just buy another Ouya. slam fedora onto it to make it a router/firewall box . and then keep the extra controller for 2 player gaming. That's about it really.
Incidentally I thought it was interesting how PlayStation 4 decided to use a touch-pad controller onto their system. Kind of makes me wonder if they're trying to cash in like they tried with 6-axis controlling when the Wii came out. I don't care about it anyways. It's just a shame I have to wait until 6/25/13 for my Ouya to arrive.
