Jul 18

OUYA Launches $1M ‘Free The Games’ Fund, Will Match Kickstarter Funds For OUYA-Bound Games

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The OUYA Android gaming console has been met with mixed reviews. The console blew up on Kickstarter, and in the months leading up to its recent release, the hype has turned into slight concern over whether or not developers will build out its game library.

To answer that question, OUYA today announces the $1 million Free The Games Fund, which will match the funding amount received by developers on Kickstarter. So, if a developer is building an OUYA game and launches that game on Kickstarter between August 9, 2013 and August 10, 2014, OUYA will match whatever funds are received on the crowd-funding platform between $50,000 and $250,000.

According to the press release, OUYA currently has over 20,000 registered game developers. That’s up from 12,000 in May, around the time that OUYA closed its $15 million funding round.

Here’s the official word from CEO Julie Uhrman in the release:

There are two reasons why OUYA is on retail store shelves today: we had an innovative idea to build an affordable and open game console for the television, and we found fans who supported our idea and provided the funds to make it happen. Since then, we’ve seen dozens of great games launch on Kickstarter, and now we are in the enviable position of being able to give back AND secure the best, exclusive games for OUYA.

OUYA reminds us that some of the console’s most popular games, like Fist of Awesome (I Fight Bears) and Saturday Morning: RPG (Mighty Rabbit Studios), enjoyed their inception on Kickstarter.

Hopefully, the Free The Games Fund will ensure a steady stream of awesome content for OUYA gamers.

The $99 OUYA gaming console is available for retail purchase now.

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May 09

OUYA Closes $15 Million In Funding Led By Kleiner Perkins, Boasts 12,000 Game Developer Sign-Ups

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Today, gaming console and software company OUYA announced that they have closed a $15 million round led by Kleiner Perkins, and with participation from the Mayfield Fund, NVIDIA, Shasta Ventures and Occam Partners. This marks one of the largest institutional investments to go to a project that had its humble beginnings on Kickstarter.

OUYA is a company that launched back in 2012 on Kickstarter under the guiding hands of Julie Uhrman, a video game industry veteran who believes that gaming should be affordable and enjoyable for everyone. She and the team developed a $99 Android gaming console, which hooks into the TV and comes with automatic access to free-to-try games. It launched on the crowdfunding site to much fanfare, scoring $8.6 million in funding, which ends up being around 9x more than OUYA asked.

Along with the $15 million round, which brings OUYA’s total amount of funding to $23.5 million, the company will also be bringing KPCB General Partner Bing Gordon on to the board of directors. Gordon brings with him years of experience from Electronic Arts.

Here’s what he had to say about the funding:

OUYA’s open source platform creates a new world of opportunity for established and emerging independent game creators and gamers alike. There are some types of games that can only be experienced on a TV, and OUYA is squarely focused on bringing back the living room gaming experience. OUYA will allow game developers to unleash their most creative ideas and satisfy gamers craving a new kind of experience.

The OUYA hardware has proven its spot in the market with the successful Kickstarter project, followed by an institutional investment led by a firm such as KPCB. “The message is clear: people want OUYA,” said Uhrman.

But the same story rings true for software, as the company has seen over 12,000 developers sign up for the platform to build games and monetize them in any way they’d like. This is up from 8,000 developer signups in March.

And if that weren’t enough, OUYA has been picked up by major retailers like GameStop, Best Buy and Amazon, with availability originally intended to begin June 4. OUYA is pushing that back to June 25, however, announcing the delay today as a result of a desire to be able to meet initial demand.

Clearly, the affordable gaming console speaks to people. But is it enough to make OUYA profitable? In an interview with TechCrunch, Uhrman explained that OUYA essentially breaks even on the hardware from the $99 gaming console, and that all games will be free-to-try. Curious if that was sustainable, we asked Uhrman if free-to-try would always be the case with OUYA games.

“Free to try is a core tenet of OUYA,” said Uhrman. “We wanted a gaming experience for the television that’s inexpensive to get into. Developers monetize however they’d like to, which is why we have games with unlockable demos inside a fully paid version, or micro-transactions, and even a donation based game. I’m looking forward to the first episodic, subscription-based game,” she said.

According to Uhrman, the latest round from KPCB and friends will go toward further supporting game developers and development, bringing in exclusive and unique OUYA content, and meeting the demand seen from all parts of the world, including Japan, Brazil, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

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Aug 08

OUYA’s Kickstarter funding is complete: over $8.59 million raised, starts shipping in March

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It’s a wrap! Suffice it to say, it’s a been a relatively short, yet astoundingly fruitful — and initially record-breaking — funding run for OUYA, the hackable, Android-based gaming console. With just 29 days to work with since being announced, the Yves Behar-designed system has raked in over $8.58 million thanks to just under 63,300 backers on Kickstarter as of its official 1AM ET funding deadline today (You’ll find the final tally below).

Those who opted for developer editions will be able to start tinkering with their own units around December, while the majority of backers should receive the console as early as March 2013. Missed the Kickstarter bandwagon? Don’t fret, because OUYA plans to take pre-orders from the general public over the web soon, expecting those units to arrive at doorsteps near April.

The numbers are only part of the picture, of course. If you’ll recall, OUYA swiftly acquired a slew of partnerships from companies like OnLive, Square Enix, XBMC, Vevo, and Robotoki — and as if that wasn’t enough, just yesterday Namco Bandai and Plex officially joined the content-providing party as well. What’s more, we now know that each console will support up to four of those touchpad-equipped controllers for local multiplayer action. Even with all that, this story is far from over, as Joystiq points out that Julie Uhrman and company “promise” to have more updates before its official launch. Naturally, it still remains to be seen how OUYA’s (literally) tiny, Tegra 3-powered footprint will fare against the big three in gaming, but we’re cautiously optimistic.

So, while the final, mass-produced product is still months away, in the meantime you’ll find a recap of all the highlights from OUYA in the nifty saga module below. You can also hit up our friends at Joystiq here for extra insight from the company about its successes so far.

Update (1:15AM): Despite the timer hitting zero, it appears that pledges are still being accepted past the 1AM deadline — better be quick! We’ll be sure to update the numbers again as soon pledging is officially halted.

Update 2 (7:30AM): It took a bit of time, but OUYA’s Kickstarter is officially not accepting any more pledges. The final numbers? 63,416 backers helped to raise a final sum of $8,596,475.

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OUYA’s Kickstarter funding is complete: over $8.59 million raised, starts shipping in March originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 17

The Engadget Interview: OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman on taking console concept to reality

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The Engadget Interview OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman on turning console concept to reality

Oh, the fickle fate of a Kickstarter darling. Initial hopes and dreams culminate into a single video and a few pages of text on a website that can send your brilliant little idea careening down one of two paths. Path one is the lonely one, falling short of your goal and retreating back to the very literal drawing board to find out just why your idea didn’t match everyone’s ideals.

But the other path has its challenges too. Look at the OUYA Android-powered videogame console. The console was announced on a Tuesday, one week ago today, went on to meet its $950,000 funding goal in roughly eight hours and went on to raise millions. While thousands of gamers pledged their funds, the pundits got to pondering the unlikely (early) success, many predicting doom for this little gaming box that still has a long way to go before its promised release next March.

With the pressure building, OUYA founder and CEO Julie Uhrman is feeling no doubts. She took some time out of her incredibly busy schedule on the one week anniversary of the Kickstarter launch to refute some of the hate that’s been brewing and reassure those who have pledged their $99 that it will ultimately prove to be money well spent.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman on taking console concept to reality

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The Engadget Interview: OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman on taking console concept to reality originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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