Another old Kickstarter darling bites the dust.  Ouya, the little micro-console that couldn’t, before it could, but ultimately couldn’t, is no more.  Parts of its business have been sold off to Razer.

Remember When?

At first, the Ouya was on fire.  Its Kickstarter campaign was so successful it set records, reaching its goal in only 8 hours, the 5th campaign to break $1 million, and the fastest to reach $1 million.  After asking for about $950k, in the end they made the 2 comma club, receiving $8,596,475.  This was in 2012, when excitement for Kickstarter was at a fever pitch and everyone on both sides (maker and bidder) wanted in.

Ouya wanted to promote an inexpensive, open platform.  They openly said they would allow it to be hackable, and modder friendly.  Many were excited to see what this kind of approach could yield, and may have been a bit over eager…

Calm down, they already took it.

The retail price would be only $99, making it more accessible to more people, or so the thinking went.  With a larger user base, there was more potential for profit, drawing in more developers, and so on.  The hackable nature would also open things up to more innovation, and potentially more user engagement.

The hardware would keep costs down by running on mobile device chipsets, and be based on the Android operating system.

Excitement was high, and numerous developers, even some with some considerable industry clout, said they would support the Ouya platform, even promising exclusive titles.  SquareEnix, Namco Bandai, and Robert Bowling (formerly of Infinity Ward) all laid out plans to support the little console.  Ouya even set aside $1 million for a fund called “Free the Games”, where they would match the donations from Kickstarter for developers working on their console.  This would be a good way to feed into their own ecosystem, as well as give back to the community and the generosity that had already gotten them so far.

If you never heard any of this before, and you’re thinking that this doesn’t seem to add up, you’re not alone.  Many people at the time thought that this plan wasn’t realistic.  It didn’t present a solid plan for any profits.  The Android OS already has more than its share of security problems, so any effort to make this an “open” platform wasn’t met with equal efforts to make it SECURE.  Personally, it gave me flashbacks to the Dreamcast.  A retro darling now, but stunningly easy to pirate.  While that was a concern on people’s minds at the time, it turned out that this may not have even been a significant issue anyway.

The long march to nowhere

No matter how much optimism, or excitement there is around a product, there will always be trepidation for the initial reaction when it finally ships.  The console got its first units out and shipped to the early bidders.  The reception was a swift, and resounding “…eehh…”.

Egh, this is what I paid for?

The specs for the device sound like something that would cost $99 in 2012:

• Chipset – Nvidia Tegra 3 T33-P-A3[36]
• CPU – Quad-core 1.7 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore (ARMv7-A architecture)
• GPU – Nvidia GeForce ULP @ 520 MHz (12.48 GFLOPS)
• Memory (RAM):     1 GiB DDR3-1600 SDRAM[36][37] (shared for CPU and GPU)
• USB ports – 1 USB 2.0, 1 microUSB
• Video output – HDMI 1.4; 1080p or 720p resolution.[38] Stereoscopic 3D support.
• Audio output – HDMI (ARC), 2.0 channel[39]
• Internal storage – 8 GB eMMC flash memory (expandable via USB)[36][40]
• Networking and Wireless – 10/100 Ethernet (8P8C),[36][41] 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth LE 4.0
• Size – 75×75×82 mm (2.95×2.95×3.23 in)
• Weight – 300 g (11 oz)
• Operating system – Android 4.1 (Jellybean) with custom Ouya launcher.

While these were not rubbish stats at the time, it was clear that these stats were also not very forward facing.  This would have to be updated for the platform to remain relevant.  Additionally, the physical stats are disarmingly small.  This isn’t inherently a bad thing, but when your console is so small and light that the torque of the HDMI cable can easily keep it from laying flat, it doesn’t come across as a quality make.  The controllers were also roundly criticized for having a cheap feel to them, akin to poor to moderate third party peripherals.

The games available were also not the most inspired bunch.  Many were, naturally, ports of existing games, either mobile or console.  Perhaps the most impressive that I saw early on was a port of GTA 3.

Almost instantly many of the consoles were being put up for sale on eBay and the like.  And by instantly, I mean the consoles shipped to backers were being put up for sale before the retail units were even available.  This was the tone that the next couple years for Ouya would take, struggling to look like they have any relevance.  Compounding that, the hardware stats would continue to become less competitive, while more competitors found more comfortable ground in the market.  Android TV, smart TVs in general, and even Roku all have games available for them.

These devices followed a model and market strategy much more applicable to the audience interested in them.  They served as simple media centers, with some game capability, making them much more attractive to people who were not interested in purchasing a console.  The Ouya, on the other hand, was a cheap console alternative first, with any potential media considerations second.  Most console players would be more interested in getting one of the Big 3 rather than trying this little box with the guts of a mobile phone.

The promise of a flourishing indy dev community and modding and hacking and all these wonderful things never came about.  Even the “Free the Games” fund didn’t work as advertised.  Some devs self funded kickstarter campaigns to game the system and get Ouya to pay them out.  This quickly led to Ouya needing to modify the terms, something they wound up doing repeatedly for multiple types of agreements.  Even after changing the terms, many developers complained that they never got paid.  Exactly how this happened when the funds should have been set aside in reserve speaks to the wishful thinking that seems to have permeated all of the planning involved.

End Game

Eventually, Ouya decided they needed to exit, and sold many of their assets to Razer, most commonly known for making keyboards and mice, but also in the business of making set top devices like Android TV and Roku.  Exactly what Razer has purchased, and what they plan to do, are not immediately clear, but the most likely solution is interesting.  The theory is that Razer plans to use the Ouya staff and framework to pump content into their own Smart TV box.  This would very quickly make it a much more competitive offering, especially if they can use the entire Ouya library right out of the gate.  Despite the troubles, there are in fact over 1,000 titles on the Ouya platform now.  There is a catch with this plan, though…

Razer didn’t buy Ouya outright, and have expressly stated that they did not acquire its outstanding debts.  It also seems that they don’t have full control of the content currently available on Ouya, at least not in any cut and dry sense.  What’s more, there’s the pesky “Free the Games” fund.  Many developers are still claiming they are owed money.  If Razer is not holding Ouya’s debts, then they are not responsible for paying out this fund, which is now apparently defunct.

This side of the story developed quite quickly once it became public.  Upon hearing the outcry over this, Razer quickly made an offer to attempt to make these developers whole.  They would pay the fund back, but this would be on the condition that the same value be taken from the developers share of revenue for sales on that game in the future.  This gets a little strange, so I’ll try to put forth an example:

• I make a game and am owed $5000 from Ouya under the terms of this fund.
• The game sells for $10 and I make $2 from each sale.
• Ouya sells to Razr
• Razr says they’ll give me the $5000, but I must agree to let them sell 2500 copies of their game without giving me any share.  $2 each * 2500 copies = the $5000 I’m owed.

This seems to be a reasonable solution to a big ‘ol financial mess.  It’s also evidence that Razer may not have done their full due diligence when making this purchase.  They didn’t buy Ouya outright, and as a result aren’t necessarily obligated to honor these agreements.  Razer was a bit naive, though, if they thought that this wouldn’t look bad when this fund STILL wasn’t being honored.  Either Razer thought this wouldn’t be a problem, or it legitimately took them by surprise.

Sorry Razer, just because you say you didn’t get their debt doesn’t make it so in public opinion.

At the end of the day, though, the Ouya developers still have a market to sell their games, and the “Free the Games” fund applicants are FINALLY getting paid in some form.   And that’s good, cause they certainly weren’t going to make that money on the Ouya console.

Kynetyk is a veteran of the games industry.  Behind the Line is written to help improve understanding of what goes on in the game development process and the business behind it.  From “What’s taking this games so long to release”, to “why are there bugs”, to “Why is this free to play” or anything else, if there is a topic that you would like to see covered, please write in to kynetyk@enthusiacs.com