Ouya wasn’t the first Kickstarter darling to flame out, even if you limit the conversation only to video game-related projects, and it almost certainly won’t be the last. It might, however, be the only one to take a potential new …
Ouya wasn’t the first Kickstarter darling to flame out, even if you limit the conversation only to video game-related projects, and it almost certainly won’t be the last. It might, however, be the only one to take a potential new paradigm for mobile gaming down with it.
That’s one thought that springs to mind upon reading reports that Ouya is in even more financial trouble, and that it needs to find a buyer soon to avoid drowning in its own debt. The fact that the company needed to borrow money multiple times already is evidence that it hasn’t exactly set the world on fire.
Part of its failure to do so can be attributed to the larger inability of microconsoles to catch on. While enough people seemed to like the idea of versatile, relatively inexpensive boxes to have them successfully crowdfunded, none have done much of anything to even hint at any changes to the larger gaming status quo.
For Ouya, there’s an even more specific issue: while the Android operating system can and is used for more than running mobile devices, it’s largely known for doing just that. In other words, Android games are inherently mobile games, and there’s been little sign that there’s a huge demand for people to be able to play them on their televisions.
That might not ever change. Unless it does, I’m going to remember Ouya mostly for the flap it got into in 2013 about advertising its tent across the street from E3. At least that’s something, I guess.
[via The Verge]
