How do you get funds to make the low-cost Android-based games console of your dreams? If you do like Ouya, you use Kickstarter, asking the potential customers to fund your project.
Who knows, you might get lucky like Ouya-- getting over $2.5 million from around 20000 people in less than 48 hours. Not bad for a company who failed to drum up enough interest from venture capitalists to get $950000 (the goal asked on the Kickstarter campaign).
It appears Ouya might become the most successful Kickstarter project, should it manage to beat the $10.3m pledged for the Pebble smart-watch earlier in 2012.
The Ouya (pronounced "oo-yah") is a low-cost ($99) Android 4-powered console isnide a slick aluminium housing. It is open, hackable and ships with an SDK, making every owner a potential games developer. It shares specs with most current smartphones and tablets-- Tegra3 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of flash storage and HDMI, wifi, Bluetooth and USB connectivity.
The controller also looks interesting, designed by One Laptop Per Child designer Yves Béhar as a "love letter to console gaming" in aluminium and gray plastic.
The console uses no physical media for games-- it instead uses a free-to-play model, with developers offering free demos on an app store before asking customers for online purchases.
Will Ouya send Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft back to the drawing board? The console already has support from a number of well known names from the independent developer scene, including Brian Fargo (inXile), Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia, Karateka) and Mojang (Minecraft).
The Kickstarter campaign closes on August 2012, with no mention of when and how the Ouya will actually hit the market.
Go Ouya
