$100, hacking encouraged, all games must be free to try. Looks awesome! Kickstarter Link About the size of a rubric's cube.. <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console/widget/video.html" frameborder="0"> </iframe> Article Link Ouya Android games console blasts past $2.3m funding on Kickstarter The challenge now is to deliver on the expectations of its 19,000 early backers Share 16 Email Ouya has raised $2.3m in less than a day. Now the hard work begins. US startup Ouya has attracted $2.3m (£1.47m) of pledges for its Android-based games console, less than 24 hours after launching its campaign on crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Nearly 19,000 people have backed the project at the time of writing, and with 28 days still to go, it has a shot at rivalling the Pebble smart-watch, which attracted $10.3m of Kickstarter pledges earlier in 2012. Chief executive Julie Uhrman had told the Guardian that venture capital firms had been skittish about the prospects for the Ouya console, leading the company to raise its seed funding from family and friends, before turning to Kickstarter to get feedback from consumers and developers to help them take it all the way. The console will cost less than $100 and is due to go on sale in the first quarter of 2013. Every unit will ship with a software development kit (SDK), and already has a number of prominent developers expressing their support for its open, hacker-friendly ethos. Ouya has already sold out a number of its reward tiers on Kickstarter, including 500 people pledging $225 or more to reserve a console and two controllers with their username etched into them, and 200 pledging $699 or more for the "Developer Special", which includes a rooted version of the console, early SDK access and a year's promotion for their game. Reaching the funding goal so quickly is early vindication for Ouya, but it will also bring additional pressures as the company aims to meet the expectations of its early adopters, while also positioning its console for mainstream success. Here are some of the key challenges: How open is open? This is a key point: What's got a lot of developers excited about Ouya is its promise of being fully open and hackable. By making its device easy to root – a process that won't void the warranty – using standard screws and including a USB port, Ouya is making the right moves on the hardware front. Claims of openness can lead to a fall, though: developers will be scrutinising Ouya's terms and practises, and will make their views known if the company falls short of their expectations. One important aspect: Ouya won't just be selling a console: it will be running an app store. While any developer will be able to make an Android game (or, indeed, a non-game app) for Ouya, the company will be in charge of promotion, curation and general store management – not to mention moderation. How will it decide which games to promote to Ouya owners? What will its policy be in legal disputes, such as trademark infringement or game cloning? How will it keep its store easily navigable as more and more games come out? Which payment options will it support? There are plenty of lessons to learn from Apple, Google and Microsoft – the treatment of indie games on the latter's Xbox Live store included. Ouya will be thinking hard about how to balance its openness with some of the decisions required to be an effective store-owner. Good games, good games... Ouya is a games console: the games have to be good. A honkingly obvious statement, but one that can't be forgotten. What games will be available when Ouya launches, and will they be any good? The company's strategy thus far is sensible on this score. It's absolutely right that there are lots of developers either in or coming out of the console market and setting up their own studios, and that there are lots of mobile and/or social games developers who'd love to take their games to televisions. There's a lot of talent to be tapped. One risk: developers focusing on simply porting their existing Android mobile games to Ouya as a way of testing the waters, leading to a rash of launch titles originally designed for phones rather than TV screens. Another risk: studios with console backgrounds simply apeing popular genres on PS3 and Xbox 360, but scaled down for Ouya's hardware capabilities. At least there's an obvious solution presenting itself here. Ouya has more-than doubled its initial funding target in its first day on Kickstarter, and may add several million dollars more over the next 28 days. Setting aside a decent chunk of that money to commission original and innovative games for launch would be a sensible strategy. Get developers thinking about how to make best use of Ouya's touchpad'n'buttons controller, while reducing the financial risks that might lead them down the pure-port route. Who is Ouya for? An open, hackable games console running Android where every unit ships with an SDK? No wonder geeks like me are excited about Ouya. But a $100 games console that can also run apps (specifically TV-focused apps like Netflix) with a sleek design? This could be bigger than that. Ouya's challenge over the coming months is to figure out its target audiences, and based on that, its distribution and marketing strategy to make this a console for everyone, not just for people who know about Android development and Kickstarter crowdfunding. Which is not to say it doesn't make sense to focus on developers first – the priority was hitting that first funding target and getting game-makers excited about the company's plans. It's just that if Ouya is really going to disrupt the established console manufacturers as Uhrman hopes, the company needs a nailed-down strategy for getting beyond those early adopters as quickly as possible next year, to raise awareness before Sony and Microsoft unveil their new consoles as anticipated. Above all: Execution Ouya has smart people on board already, and its crowdfunding campaign should give it the resources to hire a few more. That's good, because above all, the key challenge now is execution. Those first 19,000 backers are pledging based on some slinky product shots, specs and a well-argued pitch for how Ouya plans to go about its business. The real work is delivering on that, as with any Kickstarter campaign. Expectations are high, but that means further to fall if Ouya messes up. If the console is buggy when it goes on sale, or if the store doesn't work properly, or if a game gets onto the store that scams players, or... The amount of funding that Ouya has attracted on Kickstarter so far is impressive. That's not success, though. Success will come in 2013, if the company uses that funding to deliver a device (and a store, and a developer ecosystem around it) that delivers on its considerable potential.
I'm completely psyched for this. My first thought was - if Apple is smart, they make their AppleTV just as compatible with iOS apps.
Never played an Android game I liked. The worries and fears mentioned in the article - they're spot on.
I'm so torn on this. I'm exactly half excited at the possibilities, and half filled with dread. Worst-case is that it's nothing but Farmville on the big screen, with some awful FPS's thrown in. Best case is there will be a bunch of great new IPs from creative developers who were pushed out by the high costs of developing for the current consoles.
Gaming is rather weak on Android. Of course, there are emulator and hacking possibilities, though that's the same for any pc connected to the TV. Outside of that, it's just an app store...and it would be up in the air how successful just another app store would be. Still, intriguing concept. I'm always fascinated by Kickstarter. OUYA is basically vaporware at this point, out of nowhere with no real info on the people behind it, and yet they've got millions within a few days. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
Want. Also want in a 15" laptop for ~200, with hot dock 2.5 sata drive bay. Android game library, emulators, skype, etc... 99% of what I need a laptop for. 80wh battery and 8 watt power consumption.... yes please.
So will these games be on game discs? Will it have a hard drive? I couldn't figure out from what I read. If 8 gigs is the limit of storage on the device that might not be enough depending on how successful the system is. I am definitely intrigued, though.
Sounds like a modified version of Google TV, which is android, is connected to the App Store, and you can attach any external hard drive to it, can be rooted, etc. Is it different?
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Well, in a fit of what may or may not have been insanity, I went ahead and forked over the $129 to get this system (and an extra controller). We'll see how it goes. How does this kickstarter stuff work? If this system never pans out for some reason and they never get anything off a production line, do I get any money back or is that the risk of participating?
Very interesting concept. I'm curious to see if a console that has the processing capability of an iPad can: 1) attract enough novel games to the platform 2) make the company enough money from just the app store 3) not quickly become technological outdated.
Well, they are up to over $6 million with a week left to go. They've got agreements with several big names, not the least of which is Square Enix who is going to release the original Final Fantasy III at launch (I think). Which is awesome. I'll be cuious to see what other developers get involved.
I think just ports of Square's existing reworked games makes this a slam dunk. I'll probably throw at least $99 on this before the kickstarter is over. I'm tempted to go for the $140 LE Exclusive.
