Ouya: the $99 Android based game console on Kickstarter

[samifan24]

Ouya, a $99 Android based game console, has raised over $1.4M in its first day on Kickstarter. Thought this would interest FOFC.

hxxp://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console

[stevew]

Saw this. I'm wondering if stuff like this and On Live will be popular.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I gotta be honest, I have a tough time believing that's actual honest-to-God money.

Pledges, that I can believe. But cash on the barrelhead, up front, for something that sounds pretty damned pie-in-the-sky ... that's just really really hard for me to swallow.

Maybe I'm just too skeptical or something, but that's what goes through my head reading this (and a great deal moreso after reading the hype page)

[Crapshoot]

Jon, the way kickstarter (and Indiegogo, the other major crowdfunding platform) works is that you pledge money, but its only taken when the target amount is reached. The pledging process involves linking to your Amazon payments account, so yes, its actual money. Its a fascinating / and intriguing way for direct to consumer product development.

[bob]

Jon, the way kickstarter (and Indiegogo, the other major crowdfunding platform) works is that you pledge money, but its only taken when the target amount is reached. The pledging process involves linking to your Amazon payments account, so yes, its actual money. Its a fascinating / and intriguing way for direct to consumer product development.

Well, to be fair, its only sorta actual money now. Plenty of time for people to back out before funding closes and accounts are charged, but i doubt a significant percentage will.

[DanGarion]

Well, to be fair, its only sorta actual money now. Plenty of time for people to back out before funding closes and accounts are charged, but i doubt a significant percentage will.

Typical backout rate is about 5% (If I remember what the guy from Order of the Stick said). Still ain't too bad, especially considering they have 28 more days...

[Marc Vaughan]

Its quite interesting seeing this sort of project on KickStarter - while such a console isn't ever likely to go 'mainstream' it'll definitely help it have a higher profile than the previous 'hobbyist' consoles of which there have been several.

If you're a gamer and like MAME check out the likes of the GP2X etc. which have been kicking around for several generations powered by Linux ...

(they're great if you're a hobbyist developer as they're totally open and easy to program for, but no FMH isn't likely to arrive on them because theres no commercial opportunity really on them)

[Fidatelo]

I'm tempted to back it, I think the idea is pretty awesome and I always like to see more competition in the space.

[Matthean]

It will be interesting to see if they up the amount of allowable $99 bids. It's the only reasonable price option for getting the console to start and I wouldn't doubt it gets sold out. They have 28 days to go with 80% of them left. 1K of them already filled out the cheaper option.

[samifan24]

It will be interesting to see if they up the amount of allowable $99 bids. It's the only reasonable price option for getting the console to start and I wouldn't doubt it gets sold out. They have 28 days to go with 80% of them left. 1K of them already filled out the cheaper option.

They've already increased the number of consoles available at the $99 price point from 5K to 80K.

[Matthean]

The PA Report - The reality of the OUYA console doesn’t match the hype: why you should be skeptical (http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-reality-of-the-ouya-console-doesnt-match-the-hype-why-you-should-be-ske)

Might want to hang on to your money.

[Logan]

Here's another article that goes beyond this particular project:

Why Kickstarter's Ouya Looks Like a Scam (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407046,00.asp)

[Matthean]

OUYA Partners with Square Enix to Bring Final Fantasy 3 to North American TVs - Blistered Thumbs (http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2012/08/ouya-square-enix-ff3/)

Square Enix is putting FFIII on it.

[Matthean]

OUYA One Year Later: 840 Games, 36K Developers, And A New Console In The Works | TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/24/ouya-one-year-later/)

[sterlingice]

I can't find sales numbers for the console anywhere, though. There are some stories that its launch month was a paltry ~15K its first month and hasn't sold many since.

SI

[Easy Mac]

Techcrunch has turned into the Darren Rovell of technology reporting.

[mckerney]

And it looks like the Ouya is just about dead at this point.

Exclusive: Gaming startup OUYA needs to find a buyerÂ*quickly - Fortune (http://fortune.com/2015/04/28/exclusive-gaming-startup-ouya-needs-to-find-a-buyer-quickly/)

OUYA has been unable to restructure its debt, and now needs to quickly find a buyer.

Gaming company OUYA is on the auction block after tripping a debt covenant, according to a confidential email sent out earlier this month from CEO Julie Uhrman to company investors and advisors.

Investment bank Mesa Global — which recently managed the sale of music service Songza to Google GOOG -0.30% — has been hired to manage the process. No word yet on asking price.

OUYA originally raised $15 million in Series A funding in early 2013 from investors like Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield Fund, Occam Partners, Shasta Ventures and NVIDIA NVDA 0.47% . Not too long after, it quietly secured some venture debt from TriplePoint Capital.

It is unclear exactly how much was lent by TriplePoint, except that it must have been more than the $10 million that OUYA raised just two months ago from Alibaba BABA 0.21% . Debt restructuring negotiations were unsuccessful. In her memo, Uhrman writes: “Given our debtholder’s timeline, the process will be quick. We are looking for expressions of interest by the end of this month.”

OUYA originally launched as a crowdfunded “microconsole” for gaming, but quickly struggled to find buyers. What it did have, however, was a large library of games. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company last year signed an agreement to deliver its games via Xiaomi’s televisions and set-top boxes, and next month will go live on certain Alibaba set-top boxes.

“Our focus now is trying to recover as much investor capital as possible,” Uhrman wrote. “We believe we’ve built something real and valuable. I continue to read the tweets and emails of our fans who play OUYA every day, and our catalog is now over 1,000 apps and 40,000 developers. We have the largest library of Android content for the TV (still more than Amazon) — hells ya!”

Neither Uhrman nor TriplePoint has yet returned requests for comment.