During a Panel at PAX East, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said that their studio had received development kits for the Ouya, but is not sure if to support it due to their concern over the install base.
To quote what Randy Pitchford said, “I think our mission is to entertain people, right? Wherever people happen to be. I think Ouya is great. I contributed to it on Kickstarter; I have a dev kit. Some people are playing with the kits around the studio,” Pitchford said. “I’m not sure how much effort to put towards that because […] I don’t [know] how large that audience is going to be yet and we have to be responsible.” He also explained that this decision to support the Ouya is ultimately business.
Pitchford also said, “One of the challenges with game makers is increasingly people who get very good at certain things like programming or art or design, they expect to get paid a lot. And what that means is it becomes very expensive to create video games. And if we don’t make as much as we spend, we don’t get to keep doing it. We don’t want to be among those studios that close down.”
He also went on to say, “I’m interested in the platform and I love efforts like that. And I’m certain that some industrious, clever, up-and-comers will take advantage of emerging platforms.”
So as you can see, Randy Pitchford is skeptical about the Ouya, although he apparently supported it on Kickstarter and is also interested in the product. Share your thoughts with us below.
And just so you know, the Ouya is scheduled to release in June.
