Ouya Approaches $5 Million In Backing, Attracts 5x Goal (So Far)

http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/07/ouya-approaches-5-million-in-backing-attracts-5x-goal-so-far/

by lordpenguin • 14 years ago

45 53 14 years ago

FreeKill2• 14 years ago

Whatever you think of the console itself, that's an impressive amount of fundraising. I think Ouya has shown one thing for sure and that's making your Kickstarter a pre-order of sorts definitely encourages people to donate in larger sums. Of the 36K backers, only ~2000 have donated less than the $95 that gets you a console.

lordpenguin• 14 years ago

Yes, you are right. Even backing at the $99 level gets you the $99 console! THAT is value.

hkmurakami2• 14 years ago

I personally think that this is the greatest value that kickstarter has brought us.

We now have the option to forego the traditional cycle of [product development -> promotion -> sales] and instead pursue a [promotion -> sales -> development] path, which reduces the risk of irrecoverable sunk costs significantly.

In a way, it shifts "risk" from the producer to the consumer.

chucknelson• 14 years ago

It's also one of the worst things about kickstarter. The risk is moved to us, the consumer, and if it falls through, kickstarter isn't doing anything about it. We've basically funded some employee salaries, etc. with nothing to show for it.

I do think kickstarter is great, though.

makmanalp• 14 years ago

Isn't that technically illegal since it's considered selling?

StavrosK6• 14 years ago

Can someone explain how this is different from any other Android thing? Is it not the same thing as my phone/tablet hooked up to the TV with a Bluetooth gamepad?

cryptoz• 14 years ago

> phone/tablet

Please let us know where you're buying a gaming-quality $100 phone or tablet from!

StavrosK6• 14 years ago

It actually cost $0, as I already have one of each.

Are you saying that none of the OUYA backers has an Android phone or tablet?

pbreit• 14 years ago

Equiso's trying to do it for $70: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2028163448/equiso-smart-...

It all sounds very doable to me so I totally don't understand all the negativity. Tablets have expensive screens and phones have complicated cellular capabilities.

10char2• 14 years ago

Usually when someone describes a new product as "the same as x through y while z", it means the new thing is solving a pain point. Like, "isn't Heroku just git hosted on AWS which runs a Rails server after a push?"

The process you're describing is definitely workable and some games take advantage of it, but the Ouya focuses solely on making the experience of playing and downloading games painless. Whether or not they'll succeed is a different argument, but the Kickstarter proves that there's demand for such a product.

StavrosK6• 14 years ago

Ah, are they providing their own UI, then? I'm guessing Android is just the backend, from what you say, is that correct? I.e. you won't have access to the rest of the apps and the system itself except through their custom launcher?

coffeeaddicted• 14 years ago

Never seen anyone hook up his phone with a TV (also never seen one do that with a tablet, but I don't know many tablet owners). Maybe because most people already have a console on that port. Which could actually be the bigger problem for OUYA - that game console space is already taken up in many living rooms and I doubt somewhat it will be easily competing with the consoles already taking up that space.

sneak• 14 years ago

I just hope I can get my product prototype to a meaningful place in time before a bunch of people collectively realize that most people selling shit on Kickstarter have no idea what they're doing and stop throwing money at these.

The race is on!

naner• 14 years ago

If they take the $5mil and are unable to deliver, that might be the beginning of the end of crowdfunding.

nimblegorilla• 14 years ago

If they don't deliver hopefully it will just open up new ways of vetting projects that raise six-figures or more.

If they do deliver will that finally be enough to silence the crowdfunding naysayers?

potatolicious• 14 years ago

How do we vet them, beyond "is a scam"?

There are plenty of well-meaning people who want to do a lot, but are incredibly poorly positioned to do it. Or do we want to limit crowdfunding to near slam-dunk ideas?

I think it's a problem that Kickstarter has brought out a lot of very, very green entrepreneurs with little experience actually shipping product. But what can we do about it without throwing the baby out also?

SteveJS• 14 years ago

Will anybody even agree on what successful delivery looks like?

objclxt• 14 years ago

What is a successful delivery? I guess that depends. I would say a successful delivery is releasing the product. Given they've got a very aggresive schedule and are promising delivery for September 2012, I'd say a successful delivery would be getting the product out to backers before the end of the year (ie, the holidays).

I do think they are setting themselves up for some serious pain - it's very difficult to turn down money. I think originally Ouya had a 5,000 limit on the $99 reward. Now they are offering 80,000, and the estimated delivery date hasn't changed. If their delivery was to slip (not all that surprising) the number of vocal angry customers who maybe don't fully understand the nature of Kickstarter funding is going to be much greater.

Good luck to them - but it's important to go into this sort of thing with some sense of proportion. Even the best intended and funded projects can and do go a bit awry on the way to delivery. Just look at the team behind Ouya - their designer, Yves Behar, is a talented man, but two of his most well known projects (OLPC and the Jawbone Up) had significant delivery issues.

unimpressive• 14 years ago

Imagine how they must feel. If this falls through their reputations will never recover.

They'll go down in the tech history books as one of the biggest failures ever.

redslazer4• 14 years ago

Not to be unfair but it could be sort of like with Diaspora. The inability to deliver on the kickstarted campaign caused one of the founders to take their own life. It would be very sad if something like that were to happen again only because a group massively over promised and was unable to meet their own goals.

Alex3917• 14 years ago

I think they might actually be able to pull it off. $99 is probably too low a price point, but they might be able to attract some investment based on this so that they can get away with selling the first million at a loss. In that scenario there is a good chance the company would eventually go bankrupt, but they would still be able to ship what they initially promised. So in short, I think there is a fairly good chance of at least a break-even scenario.

lukifer• 14 years ago

Because if there's one thing humans hate, it's gambling.

polshaw2• 14 years ago

The level of funding popular KS projects are getting almost leads me to be concerned that someone is going to game the system and promise the earth, and then just run off with all the money. Which, AFAICT, would be perfectly legal.

jluxenberg• 14 years ago

From the founder's description of the console:

"Let’s open this sucker up!...We’re handing the reins over to the developer with only one condition: at least some gameplay has to be free."

They aim to produce an open platform for TV gaming that puts requirements on how games are distributed. What?! Doesn't sound "free" to me.

Fargren• 14 years ago

Free as in beer.

aggronn• 14 years ago

Well then, not when you put it that way.

veridies• 14 years ago

They're okay with a demo (as they say in the Kickstarter FAQ) and you can sideload apps. That's not anti-freedom.

trotsky• 14 years ago

we could use a term like green washing these days, for this kind of thing and the dual license hucksters

alttab• 14 years ago

I cannot fucking wait for this.

akshat• 14 years ago

This page is clearly blog spam. How did it land up on HN?

polshaw2• 14 years ago

I really don't get the level of enthusiasm for this device, and struggle to see it really taking off mainstream (which may not matter, since it's just an android box).

Yes, we haven't seen an android device targeted for gaming yet, but AFAICT, there is nothing this will do that you can't already do with something like an mk802[0]. Similarly, decent tablets can be had for $100[1]. Now, both of these have slower GPUs (mali 400, as SGS2), but come 9 months when this is actually meant to be available, i'm certain there will be better-than tegra3 hardware available in that price range. Further, most people could just connect their phone via hdmi and a PS3 controller to get the same result.

Another angle of looking at it could be as reference hardware, like a nexus device for gaming. That would have advantages.. (better dev support etc etc) but its userbase is going to be a drop in the ocean compared to other android devices- take the SGS3 for example-- 9m pre-orders. This is currently at 0.05m.[2]

I do wish these guys luck however.The fundraising is impressive however you look at it. I do see ARM devices taking over a large chunk of the conosle space[3], and i do see a mobile OS involved. A greater degree of freedom than the big boys (although not than android) is welcome, as is the competition. I really hope we get some quality in-room multiplayer back-- and this could help to spur that-- which hasn't been a first class citizen since way back in the n64 days(!). But there is no guarantee that anything will change.

Ultimately, the success of the fundraising could be its own downfall, attracting google/apple/microsoft to compete. We all know how much they want presence in the living room. OUYA's interface is more suited for a game pad, but it's nothing that couldn't be matched with an app, or an android update.

0. $74 USB-stick PC.

1. I would post retail links but i don't want to come accross advertising. Check out cnx-software.com or armdevices.net if you wish to learn more.

2. based on a lazy $5m/$100. Extrapolate linearly over the 30 days and you still only have 0.3m.. a case which would smash all kickstarter funding into oblivion. People buying this would be expected to buy more games.. but we are looking a 30:1 ratio to match the big boys in the most optimistic case.

3. IMO the days of the monolithic console are numbered- mobile OS's have made gaming on an upgradeable platform as simple as the consoles, which will be soon out-dated by the relentless pace of progress in the ARM/mobile GPU world.

Ouya Approaches $5 Million In Backing, Attracts 5x Goal (So Far)

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