What Happened to the Ouya? Thread

Does anyone remember the Ouya? The kickstarter console that hyped to be the next big thing. Backer versions were sent out, and received numberous complaints, which they claimed they would fix in the retail version. They said they were going to fund Kickstarter games if they agreed to be Ouya exclusive, and then... nothing.

I don't recall it ever being publically sold (at least where I live) and it doesn't seem to be stocked at any of the big online retailers. I don't recall any issues after the first wave of early adopter complaints, and I don't recal any big games coming out for it outside Shadowgun, which looked like a cynical Gears of War clone even back then.

So, yeah. What happened?

Edited by: SabreXT

It was reported back in April that they were trying to sell the company off because they couldn't pay their debts. So to me, that meant they didn't sell too many consoles. Frankly I have never heard of anyone owning one.

Before its time perhaps, or maybe no one wants Android content for the TV?

It seems to me that stuff like this (and the Occulus Rift, along with other "indie" hardware) use Kickstarter to prove to investors there's interest in the product & they hope they'll get a big payout by selling the kickstarted funded hardware to another company.

I've had a chance to work with and become acquainted with a few people from OUYA, and, while they refuse to give me the nitty gritty about what's going on (or even acknowledge it), I can tell you this. I love my OUYA. Duck Game and Bombsquad and a few other titles are amazing. That being said, OUYA is not just a console, they are a company made up of people who care about independent developers, they are a storefront, and they are a publisher. OUYA does its best to help independent developers 1) self publish to a home console and 2) gain the traction they need in order to obtain a better fan base for them to publish to much more major platforms. This has happened with both Towerfall and Duck Game, notably. As far as the storefront goes, they recently made a deal with Xiaomi, the Apple of China, and are now helping developers translate their games to simplified Chinese to be distributed in front of a massive and new market.

The other thing of note is that corporations in the US operate in debt. It's a fact. It's how stock-based economy works. Almost every company you have heard of technically owes somebody(s) more than they are worth. The entire county owes more than it is worth. Whenever you hear of a small company being acquired by another, it is generally because of something like what is happening with OUYA: an investor got pissed about something and now they have to clean up the mess.

Anyway, I wouldn't count OUYA out of the game yet. Maybe as a console, but as a company, they are good people who work hard.

I've seen it for sale in the UK at a chain of shops called Game, I believe they had a exclusive deal to sell them.

I like the idea of Ouya but I didn't buy one as I don't have a TV and I don't know anyone who has one, apart from some people on other forums who seem to really like them. I also thought they were a bit too expensive.

I think for developers they're great, no license fees and a fixed hardware platform, but I don't think gamers really took to them. Most people who want to play indie games will have a PC, which will easily plug into a TV if needs be, and console gamers are generally in it for the AAA experience, with indie games being a bonus. This is a bit of a generalisation but the vide I got was no one was really interest in playing Android quality games on a TV.