The OUYA is a groundbreaking device. It's the first ever independent, crowd-funded game console for living room home entertainment. Quite naturally, on a budget for just under $10 million, the console launched with its own hiccups and setbacks, but that didn't stop the CEO from staying grounded and reaching out to all the company's fans and backers.
Julie Urhman sent out e-mails to backers and supports of the OUYA to let them know that just because the company managed to get a game console out there, they're still consumer-first and they are crediting OUYA owners with some store credit to purchase a few games from the digital store. Kotaku has a text version of the e-mail below. You can also check out the image that a reader sent us in case you don't trust Kotaku.
To our beloved backers,It’s been 11 months and 26 days (360 days for those who prefer a more exact count) since we left the gates of Kickstarter and set out to turn our vision into a reality.It wasn’t OK that some of you—our most loyal supporters—didn’t get your OUYA until after it was on store shelves. Others had an issue with our still-new customer service. Despite your frustrations, you’ve played on, putting up with our bumps and bugs as we work to get better every day.That being the case, we want to do more than tell you how much we appreciate you—we want to show it.If you feel you’ve had any kind of less-than-OUYA experience with us (a polite way of saying at any time you felt pissed at us for whatever the reason: late shipment, missing controllers, a delayed response to a CS ticket you opened), we’d like to give you a store credit of $13.37 to use toward any purchase(s) on DISCOVER.If you are annoyed with us, we hope this is a first step to winning back your And for those that are loving on us, love on.We’ve learned a lot over the past year and we’re going to continue making OUYA better every day!Play on, Julie
That's a great move by the company, and whether you like the OUYA or not it's a league and a half better than anything Microsoft has done. Why? Because it shows that Urhman and crew at least care enough to directly communicate with their audience and let people know when they screwed up.
Microsoft is like OJ Simpson, even when guilty they admit they didn't do anything wrong. The hubris seems to be of an insatiable kind where they only change directions and policies when it looks like the almighty dollar is at risk and not the company's public image or their almost non-existent relationship with their customers.
Whether or not the continued moves to help grow and foster a positive relationship with the OUYA audience will pay off in the long run remains to be seen. However, it's good news that the people at the top of the totem still respect the lowly consumers who put them where they are and are still trying to keep that connection alive.
Perhaps with a little time, patience and diligence, OUYA could develop a dedicated and loyal community similar to what has been established with Valve and Steam.
Right now, the OUYA is available for only $99. It's cheap, it's great for emulation and the only thing it really suffers from is a lack of games, but that's all changing as the brand new console from a brand new company that was mostly financed by gamers and developers, grows and matures its install base.
You can learn more about the OUYA by paying a visit to the official website, or pick up the small console from your local gaming retailer or Amazon.
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