In a document that was leaked to Fortune.com the CEO of OUYA, Julie Uhrman has put out a call looking for potential buyers to rescue the company from what appears to be some fairly significant venture debt incurred with investment firm TriplePoint Capital. As is unfortunately the way of life and business these days, some dreams come crashing down as quickly as they shot to success and OUYA is one of these stories.
The Android based gaming console made a big splash when it landed on Kickstarter with 63,416 backers which includes several Ausdroid staff; pledging a total of US$8,596,474 to help bring this project to life. An outstanding effort for any project to get off the ground but to smash their targets like this was no doubt beyond the wildest dreams of the creators.
After the initial sales on Kickstarter promising so much, OUYA failed to find any foothold in the market with dated hardware and look (by the time it was eventually delivered and no second generation has been seen or heard of), disappointing performance, very little by way of recognised developer adoption and competitor products that in many cases offer better functionality and newer hardware.
Personally, aside from people who’ve loaded XBMC on their OUYA I don’t know of anyone whose console isn’t a $100 reminder to stop buying stupid stuff on Kickstarter.
If you bought an OUYA is it gathering dust, an XBMC player or have you found another practical use for yours?
