Is the OUYA Controller as Good as the X360 or PS3 Controllers?

Developers currently working on OUYA games are not so sure. In a forum post started at the beginning of April, developers are seeing that the analog sticks on the OUYA (both developer and backer units) are having some polling issues.

As forum member efroemling states:

“In the PS3 case the character moves in a circle but the OUYA one winds up looking more like a slightly rounded square due to one or the other axis seeming to be in a dead-zone for a disproportionate amount of time.“

The image above shows the PS3, OUYA, and Xbox 360 controllers polling data, done by the developer. The differences between the OUYA and the other two controllers are staggering; it seems that the OUYA is unable to poll whole sections of the analog stick! The OUYA team have gone on record stating:

“Thanks for helping us bring improvements to OUYA! The controller issues have been resolved, and recent shipments include new updated versions. Any problematic controllers have been and will continue to be replaced with new versions at the players’ request by writing us at [email protected]. Thanks again for your support!“

But many developers have received their retail OUYAs and are still having the same issues as in the developer and backer units. Luckily, developers seem to be using their programming skills to filter the OUYA to get better polling results, shown below. 

While this polling issue on the controller is something that the OUYA team can fix for OUYAs being manufactured, it seems that those that are already out in the wild will continue to have these issues. It’s good to see a console manufacturer listening to its developers and fixing the issues they find, hopefully the OUYA team was able to fix this issue for all retail OUYAs.