Funds from venture capital firms come as $99 Android-powered console delayed to June 25; EA veteran joins board of directors.
Ouya today announced that it has raised $15 million in new funding, as the $99 Android-powered console has been delayed to June 25. The extra money comes from venture capital firms and will be used to support the platform's development community and "meet increased demand" for the system's impending launch, originally slated for June 4.
Venture capital funding was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), with support from the Mayfield Fund, Nvidia, Shasta Ventures, and Occam Partners.
The $15 million in new funding piles on top of the $8.6 million raised through Ouya's original Kickstarter campaign last year. According to the company, today's announcement of venture capital funding "validates" the company's business strategy.
"We want Ouya to be here for a long time to come," Ouya founder Julie Uhrman said in a statement. "The message is clear: people want Ouya. We first heard this from Kickstarter backers who provided more than $8 million to help us build Ouya, then from over 12,000 developers who have registered to make an Ouya game, next from retailers who are carrying Ouya online and soon on store shelves, and now from top pioneering investors."
Ouya also announced today that industry veteran Bing Gordon, who served as chief creative officer at Electronic Arts for ten years, has joined the company's board of directors. He will advise the company as it ramps up its development community and the platform releases to retail. Gordon also serves on the board of directors at Amazon and Zynga, among others.
The Ouya launches publicly on June 25 at Amazon, Best Buy, GAME, GameStop, and Target, as well as through the Ouya online store. Additional controllers can be purchased for $50.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
I want to see what I can mod and seeing what mods others would produce. Like a pc I would like to see how much customized hardware would be put. I miss good old reliable aftermarket accessories. This generation of PS3 and Xbox360 has been quite boring and almost suffocating. At least Minecraft is on it and I want to check out Human Element exclusive. I'm sure other exclusions are in the works.
1 Like I think this console could do very well. It seems like a decent deal at $99. That's a price area that isn't served at all by other console makers. Many great indie games don't require much horsepower at all. This system allows people to play these games with a controller, in front of a TV, instead of on a tablet or phone.
@Falconoffury because its impossible to merge the two... and because youd really want to see angry birds on a 50 in.
1 Like 15mil + their original backing...ok bring on the games next...maybe do some advertising...of those games.
That's what will sell this publicly, an investment in their own games.
Their timing is right, this summer as opposed to next-gen-november.
5 Like Already pre-ordered mine from Amazon, can't wait till it's here :)
For the first time ever, I can play an alpha-version of my own game on a television screen, with a console and TV in front of me and a controller in my hand...
Just feels like a larger step than running something on my computer.
1 Like More than likely the computer you use to order this POS from will do way more than this little turd.
1 Like I hope people will at least give OUYA a try. As inexpensive at it is, I'll buy one and at least play FF3 if nothing else. I'm a budding game dev and look forward to practicing with it. Maybe if it fails as a game console it could still find life as a raspberry pi type device.
3 Like Ouya was looking pretty good for a cheap-o gaming system right up until Sony decided to throw the PS4 doors wide open for Indie Devs. Now they'll have to work on something really special to draw the masses.
@hadlee73 Yeah that's true. Then again, there is the $100 price point though. If they end up having a good library, the Ouya could be the it thing for people who like playing more casual games and don't need a powerful console that plays Blu-rays and stuff.
1 Like @hadlee73 agree . PC , PS4, M$ , even handheld like psv are supporting indie games . so we don't need this .
1 Like @acelogan1989 @hadlee73 The Ouya definitely looked better before everyone started supporting indie games.
However, the smartphone android engine is what interests me the most Ouya can bridge the gap between mobile and console games in more ways than one.
Sounds like a good idea, but somehow, I think it is one of those kind of things that are better left "in theory" and not try to implement it. But time will tell, as usual.
damm people really are stupid. hate what you dont understand lol typicall american atitude
3 Like Well, this will either a huge disaster or a big success. Are they planning ads? I think that would be a smart move to introduce it to people who don't follow gaming news.
1 Like This should be a great little console for some some decent Indie developers, Hoping to see some good platform games on this machine. And with the amount of dev's backing this theres should wide variety games to chose from.
1 Like $50 for another controller? That seems quite steep. Straight away this supposed $99 console will cost me $250 if I want to play it with friends, and I don't really want to play android games on my own with a proper console and PC sitting next to it. There will have to be some really interesting games for me to consider ponying up that kind of money to play android games on my TV.
Someone is taking a hell of a gamble on this, and they'll make money either way, betting it to lose or to win, it's a win or win for them. I love the PSN network, it's fine tuned, the service doesn't crash, It takes no time to download games. Now picture this, a new console, everything is like Vietnam, first come, first served, very chaotic approaches, 4 dollar games, which you usually buy sitting on the toalett. This thing has yet to overcome its own issues. I wish I had a betting hand on this.
oh shit, an EA worker goin there, but if he was fired, or raged from EA he cant be that bad, I mean the only reason that Monkey Scratch My ass-ello was vp for so long was his, MICROTRANSACTIONS OR GTFO policy. fuck ea.
Well with an EA executive on the board you can pretty much say that they are in it only for profits. OUYA will be another EA experiment with horrible customer support. I was inclined to buy it before but not anymore. Literally almost all ea products screw the customer. (ex: buying used game then having to buy a 15 online pass)
It's shit, I've tried it :). It's only fun the first few times, after that you can't be bothered to touch it!
@Sam_021 @the_craig @ob630 But did you get you smart phone after there were many games out for it already. I got really bored of my 360 when the only games I had to play were DOA 4 and Geometry Wars. The Ouya may also just not be for you. I definitely don't think all gamers will want this. I just think there is a large enough market that will continue to appreciate a console like the OUYA
I only had a for a few days (wasn't mine to start with). It was fun, I had a go at a few games then all of a sudden it got boring after a few days and spending times with it.
This never happened when I was gaming (trying to to game) on my phone.
1 Like @ob630 Well yeah they are probably mainly in it for the profit, that's just business. Keep in mind though that the guy from EA hasn't been there in a very long time, he worked there when EA was still beginning to grow. EA was once a good company, maybe he left when that started to change.
Could care less about all the negative backlash against this console, still looking forward to using it as a netbox on my TV, using the emulators, and playing all my android game collection at home.
1 Like I'll call it now. People don't want Ouya. They received backing and support because it was an original and creative idea. Just because you have an original idea, it doesn't mean people want it. It will suffer the same fate as OnLive - another concept which sounded good on paper. The same will go for Oculus Rift.
2 Like @jhcho2 I cant believe you threw Oculus Rift in the same pile as onlive and ouya. GIVE ME YOUR NERD CARD!!!
Oculus Rift seeks to display double images to give us the feeling of 3D. This isn't new technology in the slightest. And it's not something that we didn't have 15 years ago. The only difference in the technology is the one we all know - hardware and graphics. Back then, we had Doom 1 at 600x480. Now we have Crysis 3 at 1920x1080. Oculus would display two images of 960x1080 each. Back then, VR would display Doom in two images of 300x480. You think people shunned VR because the resolution was 300x480? No. We thought Doom was awesome back then. It's just not the way we wanted to play games.
@jhcho2 @the_craig @ender707 Is that why devs are only making shitty HD remakes of PS2 games... resistance to change. This console is exactly what the industry needs, because it's not traditional. How many consoles come with a dev kit and the ability to open it and mod the hardware? Why would something that uses a completely different OS from PS3 or XB360 be bad to have on the market? This type of console will also allow android devs to make larger, more complex games that use controllers. This would then allow them to make console quality games for an online distrubituion service, this is like steam for TV using android 4.3, how is that bad now??
@jhcho2 @the_craig @ender707 I disagree, i think many gamers our open to new ideas, if those ideas are good. I mean just look at online gaming, it didn't take long for online to become the new norm for console multiplayer. People even gave motion controls a real try before saying it sucks, just look at how well the Wii sold. The industry just needs to except when we say no to something and stop pushing it on us.
Not so much that I hate new things. But I've been in this industry long enough, and I've seen things come and go, even forgotten. The fact is, our industry is very rigid and resilient to change.
I don't think the creators of Ouya are targeting the same market as ps3 and 360 etc.... it's a niche platform and obviously cheap to make. I have a powerful android phone but i'm still interested in this as I hate touchscreen controls.
I wish them all the best and I personally think they'll do well..... they don't need a huge market to be successful..... consoles do.
@Mr_BillGates cuz apple is so original, right? selling outdated hardware as "new" and "innovative" rofl
How come they claim its $99 console. What I hear controller is $50. Its actually $150 console. I think this is cheap marketing.
@shark_tsuki Ok, how many controllers do you have for you PS3 or XBOX?? If it's more than 1 controllers then you had to pay up an additional 50 bucks for each controller. Now keep in mind that's also on top on a $300 price point and $60 plus sales tax for each game. Now with Ouya at $150 for the console and another controller, plus android game prices start at just $0.99.
In order to match the more expensive base price of PS3 with extra controller and 1 game at $60. Let's round and add 10% tax rate, PS3@$330, controller@$55, 1 game@$66 = 330 + 55 + 66 = $451 - $165(Ouya@$110 + controller@$55 = $165) = $286
This $286 difference is what people will use to buy games with and unless they spend it all or more, is makes the Ouya cheaper than a PS3 and you can get a full game library with it too.
4 Like @shark_tsuki the console comes with a controller at $99. It's $50 for any additional controller after that. PS3 and wired 360 controller work for it as well.
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