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Crowdfunded Android Console Ouya Reportedly Seeking Buyout
An anonymous reader writes: Ouya, the Android-based games console, enjoyed one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns to date, raising $8.6 million after asking for only $960,000. But now that the console has been on the market for a while, the company is struggling. After borrowing roughly $25 million from investors to keep it going, they're now trying to restructure the debt, and reportedly seeking a buyout. "Interest in Ouya's microconsole has dropped considerably since its launch back in 2013, where it had to offer store credit to dissatisfied Kickstarter backers for failing to deliver devices on time. Following disappointing sales figures for early games, the company has tried several times to turn its fortunes around."
I had high hopes for the Ouya. Look forward to buying a discounted unsold unit in the future...
Maybe they should sell their business on Kickstarter.
It worked for their crappy DIY Android box.
How many parties on private jets, cruise ships, and supercars those $33.6 million bought?
There are some kick starters that deliver nothing to anyone and no refunds...
If you need money to survive, you do not "have to" send money back to backers, especially not if the only problem is that you were late (I expect at least a year delay on Kickstarter hardware by default).
I doubt that was really what sent them over the edge though.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Ouya has loads of competition now from ARM "sticks" and media adapters like the Fire, Roku or Cu Box. And each year brings more capable hardware while Ouja stays the same. The new raspberry pi 2 or Amazon Fire are arguably superior in all ways. Certainly both those alternatives make excellent XBMC/Kodi boxes.
And competition has also come from tablets in terms of casual gaming. Tablets benefit from huge economies of scale and large online market ecosystems. Ouja was always going to be a niche market appealing to techies and gamers.
I was an original backer, I did not mind the late shipping (however many people did) what bothered me more was that when I made a purchase on their store if the console lost the connection for even a second the content would not be available anymore! Which happened pretty often over Wi-Fi...
Also the controller was not very good at what it was doing.
Everything else had its merits, but I ended up selling the machine.
They had a good idea that generated a ton of interest. They got a ton of money to do it. But the team that they put together just didn't have the right skillset mix to pull off something so ambitious. Some of their team posting in their forums and their official updates showed a pretty serious lack of knowledge in some crucial areas. Their original UI and framework was a train wreck (haven't checked back in a year). A number of people bought it to serve as a kind of media aggregator -- run Plex, XBMC, some emulators and original Indie or other content. Then they panicked that lots of people were so interested in getting XBMC/Plex onto it that let out some updates that borked the ability to do that, and really burnt a lot of people
I was ok with the media center parts of it being worthless. I understood that they had a vision for gaming and were focused on it (although executed it poorly), and so was begrudgingly ok with the fact that they were throwing up a walled garden focused on gaming, rather than nurturing a vibrant hacker community. They killed that community, which it turns out was a lot of their customers and things withered. They really could have been a Raspberry Pi with a controller. But their controller just absolutely sucked. Their kickstarted called it "a tribute to all classic controllers out there. This will be the best controller ever." or something to that effect, which was one of the key reasons I bought it. They made it sound like they had spent some very serious effort building an awesome controller. The controller was really, really bad. If you can't play games well with the system, then it's not going to succeed.
But this can't be!! All the fanbois were telling us back when this was first announced how it was scaring Sony and Microsoft and was going to destroy their console businesses.
Ouya owner
I have gotten a lot of mileage out of the system for the few games that are really fun to play in-person multiplayer. But I did want to observe a couple points that I think caused some of their problems.
Not making game prices available outside of the system. I would occasionally see games that looked interesting announced/mentioned online. When I went to check it out on OUYA's site I got a video. cool. but what is the price? could be free - could be $15. since I didn't know I shrugged my shoulders and moved on. Never took the time to dig it up again on the console itself.
They threw their game investment efforts behind too many experimental, niche, games or non-games. Don't recall what they were off the top of my head, but I remember thinking that it happened over and over. It seemed clear that they thought that was a way to differentiate themselves - but they really should have pushed simple, high quality, accessible titles. Trying to push niche games on a niche console isnt going to get you many sales.
The console price was absurd. Simple, cheap games on Android were designed to run on simple, cheap hardware and it's usually kids and the elderly joining that gaming market while I'm here playing Skyrim. You can't throw a console that expensive at that target market. For example, the Avatar Sirius gaming tablet that I got cost $65 and it's amazing. You can't compete with that.
Is there a bot/script/site tool that spits this garbage out on demand? If I hadn't just eaten my lunch, I might be tempted to feed the troll for fun. But as it is, I'm late getting back...
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
The problem is that that Kickstarter is really nothing more than distributed venture capital. Except that normal venture capital gives you a share of the company or future profits.
Here's a thought - what if that is OK? What if someone is OK being a venture capitalist whose only return is to possibly get a cool product they would like to see exist?
I think the real "problem" if there is one, is people who think of Kickstarter as a store instead of venture capital with product as a return.
All you get is a promise for a future product.
You don't get that; you get a promise they will *try to create* the product. The work Kickstarter has done in terms of validation and required disclosure is to try and make it as clear as possible, how likely that promise is to be kept.
discontent among users about failed projects
Those users can go take a flying leap as far as I'm concerned. I think there are enough people that understand what Kickstarter is, that it will continue to do well.
treats it as such by letting "investors" buy "shares" of the companies seeking funding thus making it obvious that they are also buying all the risk that comes with that
Sorry but I wouldn't touch that nebulous piece of crap with a ten foot pole. What Kickstarter is now is pretty clear I think, at this point everyone knows Kickstarters can fail, so they know there is risk. The disclosure items at the bottom give a good amount of information to fairly evaluate that risk.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Recent consoles have a fair amount of support for the kind of indie games that Ouya was hoping would form the backbone of their library
Would the console makers be as open to indies as they are today if OUYA had never shipped? Before OUYA gained momentum on Kickstarter, Nintendo still had ban on home offices in the developer requirements it posted on WarioWorld.com. This provision caused problems for Robert Pelloni's company when he wanted to bring Bob's Game to Nintendo DS because the company was operating out of an office in Pelloni's home. And before OUYA gained momentum on Kickstarter, Microsoft was going to require indie developers on Xbox One to work through an established publisher big enough to get retail discs into Walmart. OUYA showed that demand for smaller scale games on television monitors existed.
They started to backpedal on promises before the end of the crowdfunding, it is overpriced for what it was, and they had severe quality issues. 4 controllers with very little use in 1 year... Xbox controllers abused to hell work fine 4 years later. Yeah, it's dead, nobody cares, they cant even sell them in the clearance bin at Target.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
For example, the Avatar Sirius gaming tablet that I got cost $65 and it's amazing.
I looked at the product, and it doesn't appear to have any face buttons on it, unlike other Android tablets such as the Archos GamePad and various JXD gaming tablets. How do you do a reliable directional control and jump and fire controls for a game like Mega Man without buttons? I tried the on-screen controls of the free subset of Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure on my Nexus 7 (2012) tablet, and I kept missing jumps because my thumbs kept drifting from the area where the controls were. (The game worked once I paired an external Bluetooth keyboard.)
I was vaguely interested in the Ouya when it was announced as an emulator for other systems. I thought that maybe I could put something like MAME on it and have a cheap and easy way to play arcade games on my TV. I might pick one up eventually when they clearance them out, but for right now $100 seems like a lot of money for an emulator box.
I still have my Dreamcast to fall back on.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
They did some stupid mistakes that made it fail.
You couldn't start it without adding a credit card.
The console was closed, but marketed as open.
People got really irritated with this.I for myself, didn't even bother to add the credit card, I just put Ouya on the shelf, and there it still is, collecting dust.
It isn't worth $100. The controller is crap, the unit overheats, and you can get more powerful android sticks for less.
And you shouldn't even buy one hoping to hack it either.
Here's what the Kickstarter page said about openness and hackability:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console
But close to release, I decided to never buy one after I learned that the company didn't support a genuine end user recovery mode, and witnessed an Ouya employee (Al Sutton) berating and insulting the customers who insisted on one.
His attitude about custom firmware was shocking as well.
From a long-dead ouyaforum.com thread:
After people began calling Al Sutton out over this and citing the Kickstarter page to him, he made things even worse by implying that root access was a priviledge and that Ouya was doing modders a special favor by having it, and that Ouya hadn't promised much of anything (instead attempting to compare the console's openness to that of consoles you can buy at Gamestop).
It really floored me to read this a week before Ouya's launch, given the kickstarter page's promises of hackability.
Anyone with a reflashable phone (or any pretty much any other Android device whatsoever capable of using custom ROMS) knows that a real recovery mode is absolutely essential, in case the OS/kernel gets borked. And a functioning non-OS-dependant recovery mode isn't just important for hackers. It could also be the difference between a faulty official update merely inconveniencing you, or outright bricking your console. Ouya's supposed "recovery mode" relies on an already-bootable OS, so it's useless.
Even worse was the principle of the thing, and the evil behaviour of promising a feature from the beginning, then trying to handwave it away at crunchtime and citing a vague low demand (which wouldn't matter even if true). It reeks of Elite:Dangerous, which announced that they disabled the offline mode right before release.
This is what happens when you take an operating system that is meant to be used with a touch screen, and try to shoehorn in traditional gaming support. You wind up with a mediocre product. Couple that with the fact that you wind up having to rebuy all the android games you have which would work with it and it's no surprise that people said "thanks, but no thanks". The nvidia shield was a better idea because it accommodates both spaces at the same time.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
60 BUCKS?!?!?!
Would probably be overvaluing the company...
It is actually a lot better, because it's much better you may get nothing for your money.
When there are "protections" in place not only do a lot of things not happen because they cannot offer an "appropriate" level of guarantee, but also many times that which is guaranteed is not delivered on for one obscure legal reason or another.
I'd rather have the exception that something may fail than a fake promise I'll be re-embursed if it fails.
If I really want a share of the business, nothing stops me from going to them directly and offering that.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I could never buy a redeem code. What kind of business model is that? Shortly after I backed the project on kickstarter I got screwed by PP. I closed my account there. I don't have a credit card too. Oyua never offered a safe payment method or a retail card. I always thought the must have more than enough other customers if they behave like that. Looks like they are clueless.
The MOJO was supposed to be the better version of the Ouya, but it looks like it is headed in the same direction ("now discounted!").
http://madcatz.com/mojo/
Nope, it will be over soon. No way they can recover with this product, and no way they make new one without significant investments. As sort of Linux funboy :) I hoped they will succeed.
"Every pain is a lesson. Every lesson makes you better!" (C) Ariya Stark.
oyua failed to keep up its still a tegra 3. now even the china clones have better chips in them for the same price if not cheaper.
shitty, mind-numbing phone games on their television.
I could never understand why an Android gaming device would not have access to the Google Play store, so I always thought the Ouya was doomed. Average hardware and a poor controller obviously didn't help either, but why waste time and money creating your own vastly inferior game store?
Before OUYA gained momentum on Kickstarter
BEFORE Ouya shipped
I was referring to the months between the Kickstarter campaign and the release. These were the months when the console makers were scrambling to react: "If we don't revise our contracts to attract smaller developers with promising prototypes, we'll lose business to OUYA as gamers grow tired of the AAA sameness trend."
Now you may feel a kinship with him because of that disability, but don't. [His behavior is] NOT the sort of thing done by an adult with a job who wants to be taken seriously.
Agreed. I understand that Mr. Pelloni is a counterexample in many ways, and I've tried to learn from his mistakes. But his was the highest profile rejection, the one that may have planted the seed for OUYA. Mostly I was seeking others' input on what should happen at the "We cut our day jobs back to part time so we could produce a working game, we have videos of our prototype on YouTube, and people are asking where to get it" stage of my business plan. OUYA's answer was "Port it to Android and release on our platform." The change in major consoles' policies around the start of the eighth generation makes this more practical there as well, but this change might not have happened had a challenger not approached.
The problem with this idea is...well most mobile games really aren't designed to be played like a console, they are designed for touch tablets and for very short gameplay.
Which are orthogonal. It's possible to have a long-form touch-driven game or a short-form gamepad-driven game.
So if somebody asked me what kind of cheap console to get? You can get an X360 or PS3 used for less than $100 most places
The difference that before OUYA's Kickstarter campaign, it was even harder for a new developer to get a TV-oriented game published on one of those consoles. This was leading to a trend of risk-averse sameness among AAA games. The campaign's momentum gave Sony and Microsoft a kick in the pants to get their policies revised for the next generation.