Spectre Brands

DeadAndroid game console · Santa Monica, California

Ouya

Kickstarter opened Jul 10, 2012. In stores Jun 25, 2013. Sold to Razer in 2015. Switched off Jun 25, 2019.

“Cracking open the last closed platform: the TV,” the pitch said. The television stayed closed, and the box did not stay open for long.

Why dead: Razer, which bought Ouya’s software assets in 2015, shut down the Ouya store, accounts and website on June 25, 2019; the only thing still answering an Ouya console is a volunteer-run replacement server, and we found no business trading under the name.303135

Grey Ouya console, a small cube with a rounded base, beside its controller
The console and controllerPhoto: Evan-Amos, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
ouya.tv home page in July 2013 with the headline A new kind of game console and a $99 price
ouya.tv, Jul 2013Cropped from an Internet Archive capture of ouya.tv. Shown for commentary; trademarks belong to their owners.
ouya.tv home page in June 2019 with a notice that the website will shut down on June 25, 2019
ouya.tv, Jun 2019

Ouya was a $99 game console about three inches on a side, built on Android, on which every game had to be free to try. It asked Kickstarter for $950,000 in July 2012 and got $8,596,474 from 63,416 people. Reviewers called the machine that reached backers unfinished. A month after the retail launch the company said 27% of owners had paid for a game. It was put up for sale in April 2015 after tripping a debt covenant, Razer bought the software and the team, and on June 25, 2019, six years to the day after the console reached stores, Razer switched the service off. Ouya was a private company and never published its accounts or its unit sales, so this page is built from the archived Kickstarter page, the technology and trade press of 2012 to 2019, company press releases and the archived ouya.tv. It says so where the record runs out.

The console in four numbers

$8.6M
pledged on Kickstarter by 63,416 backers, against a goal of $950,0001
27%
of owners had paid for a game a month after the retail launch, by the CEO’s own count14
7,000
copies, approximately, sold on Ouya by TowerFall, its best-selling game, by April 201421
6 years
to the day from the retail launch to the shutdown, June 25, 2013 to June 25, 2019 (derived)1030

Key findings

  1. The campaign was the peak. Ouya raised about nine times its goal (derived) and set three Kickstarter records on the way.14 Nothing it did afterward drew the same response.
  2. It shipped before it was finished. Engadget called the backers’ machine “simply not ready for retail” and The Verge scored it 3.5 out of 10, two months before it reached stores.67
  3. Owners played. Few paid. Every game had to be free to try. A month in, 27% of owners had bought one, and the top earner had made its developer about $21,000.114
  4. The fund meant to fix the catalogue made it worse. A $1 million matching fund for exclusive games was gamed within weeks, and developers pulled games in protest.151618
  5. Debt set the timetable. Ouya tripped a covenant on venture debt in 2015 and its chief executive told investors the sale “will be quick.”24

Post-mortem No. 031 · Every figure links to a numbered source · Derived figures, estimates and unverified claims are labeled

The story

The best month was the first one

Ouya did not run out of believers. It ran out of buyers. The 63,416 people who paid for the idea in 2012 were most of the audience it ever demonstrably had, and nothing the company published afterward shows the store earning enough to pay for the hardware business around it.

Chapter 1 of 6

$8.6M

pledged by 63,416 backers between July 10 and August 9, 2012

Commercial · 2012The official Ouya Kickstarter video The three-minute film from the campaign page, as posted on the company’s own YouTube channel on August 29, 2012, after the campaign had closed with $8,596,474.361 Watch on YouTube

Jul – Aug 2012 · The campaign

$950,000 asked, nine times that received

On July 3, 2012 The Verge reported on a startup with no product and an unusual list of names: Julie Uhrman, a games executive from IGN, as founder and chief executive; the industrial designer Yves Béhar; Ed Fries, formerly of Xbox, as an adviser; and Muffi Ghadiali, who had worked on the Kindle at Amazon.2 A week later the company put the idea on Kickstarter: a $99 console built on Android, with a Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of memory and 8GB of storage, easy to root and open to any developer. There was one rule for games, in the campaign’s words: “at least some gameplay has to be free.”1

The goal was $950,000. The campaign passed $1 million in its first eight hours and closed on August 9 at $8,596,474 from 63,416 backers.13 Trade paper MCV counted three Kickstarter records at the time: the most pledged, the fastest $1 million, and the most raised in a single day, $3.2 million.4 Of the backers, 58,224 chose a reward that included a console (derived).1

The page promised those consoles by March 2013.1

People are ready for something new, and Ouya is that thing.

Julie Uhrman, to Engadget, Aug 9, 20123

Chapter 2 of 6

3.5

out of 10, The Verge’s score for the console that reached backers

News segment · 2013The Verge: “Ouya hands-on review” Published by The Verge on April 4, 2013 with its written review of the backers’ console, which scored 3.5 out of 10.7 Watch on YouTube

Dec 2012 – May 2013 · The backers’ machine

“Simply not ready for retail”

Developer consoles went out on December 28, 2012 and the backers’ consoles began shipping on March 28, 2013.33 In February the company named its retailers, Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Target, and a price of $99.99, with extra controllers at $49.99.5

The first reviews were of the backers’ edition, in early April. Engadget measured a box about three inches on a side that drew roughly 4.5 watts in play, and concluded that the version then shipping “should be considered a beta release.”6 The Verge gave it 3.5 out of 10 and listed one thing under “The Good”: inexpensive.7 Engadget found the controller rough around the edges, and both reviews faulted the selection of games.67

On May 9 Ouya announced $15 million of venture funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with Mayfield Fund, Nvidia, Shasta Ventures and Occam Partners, and moved the retail launch back three weeks, from June 4 to June 25, saying demand was “beyond our expectations.”789 Some backers had still not received their units.8

Ouya isn’t a viable gaming platform, or a good console, or even a nice TV interface.

David Pierce, The Verge, Apr 4, 20137

Chapter 3 of 6

27%

of owners had paid for a game in the first month, Uhrman told The Verge

ouya.tv home page in July 2013 showing the console, the controller and a $99 price
ouya.tv on July 10, 2013, two weeks after the retail launch: “every game on OUYA is free to try.”34

Jun – Jul 2013 · In stores

Sold out on day one, quiet by the end of the month

The console went on sale in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom on June 25, 2013. Amazon sold out of its stock the same day.10 A roundup of retail-unit reviews a week later put the average at 62 out of 100, with the Associated Press’s 7.0 the highest critic score.11

The first numbers came in July. NPD, which tracks U.S. retail, said sales were “relatively light for a new console,” though its count left out direct sales through ouya.tv.12 Developers began publishing their takings: TowerFall, which MCV called arguably the console’s most acclaimed exclusive, had sold about 2,000 copies at $15; NimbleBit had 6,508 downloads and 122 purchases.13

Uhrman answered in an interview with The Verge on July 25. Twenty-seven percent of owners had paid for a game, she said, and 13 of the 20 top-grossing titles were converting an average of 8% of players from free to paid. She predicted that by the end of the year “a few developers” would say they had made more than a million dollars on Ouya. The company declined to say how many consoles it had sold.14 It never did say.

I think there are a lot of social and mobile app developers that would kill for an 8 percent attach rate on a platform that’s 30 days old.

Julie Uhrman, to The Verge, Jul 25, 201314

Chapter 4 of 6

$1M

Free the Games Fund, to match Kickstarter money for Ouya exclusives

Original illustration. The fund matched what a game raised on Kickstarter; nobody had checked where the first half came from.18

Aug 2013 – 2014 · The developers

A million-dollar fund, and a retreat from the box

To get more games, Ouya set up a $1 million Free the Games Fund: it would match what a game raised on Kickstarter, from $50,000 up, in return for six months of exclusivity.1418 By September two campaigns looked wrong. Gridiron Thunder raised $171,009 from 183 backers; Elementary, My Dear Holmes was suspended by Kickstarter.18

Uhrman’s first response, a blog post saying that “openness is hard,” did not mention either game. Developers Sophie Houlden and Mike Bithell criticised it publicly, and Houlden pulled her game Rose and Time from the store.1516 Within two weeks Ouya cut the minimum to $10,000, allowed simultaneous release on PC and dropped a planned $100,000 bonus for the biggest raise. Gridiron Thunder declined the money.17

In March 2014 the company began moving away from its own hardware. “Ouya Everywhere” would put the store on other makers’ devices, starting with Mad Catz’s $199 M.O.J.O., where it went live on July 1.22 In April 2014, Amazon launched its own $99 box for the television with a game controller, and TowerFall’s creator said the game had sold about 7,000 copies on Ouya.2021

This isn’t even a response, let alone a decent one.

Sophie Houlden, developer of Rose and Time, quoted by PocketGamer.biz, Sep 11, 201316

Chapter 5 of 6

$10M

invested by Alibaba in January 2015, three months before Ouya put itself up for sale

News segment · 2015IGN News: “Ouya CEO Leaves Company Following Razer Acquisition” A one-minute news item published July 27, 2015, the day Razer confirmed the purchase and Uhrman announced her departure.2526 Watch on YouTube

Jan – Jul 2015 · The sale

A tripped covenant and a quick process

On January 30, 2015 PocketGamer.biz reported that Alibaba had invested $10 million, with the aim of putting Ouya’s library of about 1,000 games on its own set-top box in China.23

It was not enough. On April 28 Fortune published a confidential memo from Uhrman to investors: the company had tripped a covenant on venture debt from TriplePoint Capital, restructuring talks had failed, and the bank Mesa Global had been hired to find a buyer. The amount of the debt was not disclosed.24

Razer, the gaming hardware maker, closed a deal on June 12 and confirmed it on July 27. It took the content catalogue, the online store and the technical and developer-relations staff. It did not take the hardware. The price was not disclosed; Razer’s chief executive said it was paid in cash.2526 Uhrman announced her departure on Twitter the same day.26 Developers still owed money by the Free the Games Fund were first told the deal was off, then told Razer would pay: $620,000 of the $1 million was still outstanding.2729

Our focus now is trying to recover as much investor capital as possible.

Julie Uhrman, memo to investors, quoted by Fortune, Apr 28, 201524

Chapter 6 of 6

Jun 25

2019: the store, accounts and website shut down, six years to the day after the retail launch

ouya.tv home page in June 2019 with a black banner announcing the shutdown
ouya.tv on June 2, 2019: “NOTICE: This website will be shutting down on June 25, 2019.”34

2015 – Jun 25, 2019 · The switch-off

Four more years as someone else’s store

Razer kept the Ouya store running. The archived home page counted 1,112 games in August 2015 and 1,250 in June 2019; from at least January 2017 its copyright line read “Razer Group.”34

On May 22, 2019 a notice appeared on Razer’s support site, and ouya.tv carried a banner pointing to it. The game stores for Ouya, Razer’s own Forge TV and the Mad Catz M.O.J.O. would close on June 25. Accounts would be deactivated. Games already downloaded would keep working only if they did not check a purchase with the server when they started.303132

TechCrunch’s headline was “Seven years later, the OUYA is dead for real.”31

Timeline

Seven years, 29 moments

From an AngelList posting to a shutdown notice. Filter by thread.

All 29 events as a list
  1. Jul 32012
    Console & store

    The idea surfaces

    The Verge reports on a $99 hackable Android console designed by Yves Béhar, from a startup led by Julie Uhrman.2

  2. Jul 102012
    Money

    Kickstarter opens

    The goal is $950,000. The campaign passes $1 million in about eight hours.134

  3. Aug 92012
    Money

    Kickstarter closes

    $8,596,474 from 63,416 backers. Consoles are promised to backers by March 2013.1

  4. Dec 282012
    Console & store

    Developer consoles ship

    The first units go to backers of the developer tiers.33

  5. Feb 52013
    Console & store

    Retailers and price named

    Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Target will sell the console at $99.99 from June.5

  6. Mar 282013
    Console & store

    Backers’ consoles start shipping

    The Kickstarter edition begins to go out.33

  7. Apr 32013
    Console & store

    Engadget: “a beta release”

    The first major review says the backers’ machine is “simply not ready for retail.”6

  8. Apr 42013
    Console & store

    The Verge: 3.5 out of 10

    Retail launch is then planned for June 4.7

  9. May 92013
    Money

    $15 million round

    Kleiner Perkins leads; Mayfield, Nvidia, Shasta and Occam join. The retail launch moves three weeks to June 25.89

  10. Jun 252013
    Console & store

    Retail launch

    On sale in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Amazon sells out the same day.10

  11. Jul 22013
    Console & store

    Reviews average 62

    A roundup of 12 critic and 9 user scores for the retail unit.11

  12. Jul 192013
    Console & store

    NPD: “relatively light”

    The retail tracker’s assessment of the first month in U.S. stores, excluding ouya.tv sales.12

  13. Jul 222013
    Developers

    Developers publish sales

    TowerFall: about 2,000 copies. NimbleBit: 122 purchases from 6,508 downloads.13

  14. Jul 252013
    Developers

    “Better than we expected”

    Uhrman says 27% of owners have paid for a game and describes the $1 million Free the Games Fund.14

  15. Sep 82013
    Developers

    Gridiron Thunder funded

    The football game closes at $171,009 from 183 backers, and questions follow.18

  16. Sep 112013
    Developers

    Developers pull games

    Uhrman’s response to the fund controversy is badly received. Sophie Houlden removes Rose and Time.1516

  17. Sep2013
    Developers

    Fund rules rewritten

    Minimum cut from $50,000 to $10,000; PC release allowed; $100,000 bonus scrapped.17

  18. Nov 152013
    Rivals

    PlayStation 4 launches

    Sony reports 1 million sold in North America in the first 24 hours.19

  19. Mar2014
    Console & store

    Ouya Everywhere

    The store will run on other companies’ hardware. Mad Catz’s M.O.J.O. is the first partner.22

  20. Apr 22014
    Rivals

    Amazon Fire TV

    Amazon launches a $99 television box with a $39.99 game controller.20

  21. Apr 292014
    Developers

    7,000 copies

    TowerFall’s creator says that is about what the best-selling Ouya game sold on Ouya.21

  22. Jul 12014
    Console & store

    Live on M.O.J.O.

    The Ouya storefront arrives on Mad Catz’s $199 micro-console.22

  23. Jan 302015
    Money

    Alibaba invests $10 million

    The aim is to bring Ouya’s library to Alibaba’s set-top box in China.23

  24. Apr 282015
    Sale & shutdown

    For sale

    Fortune reports that Ouya tripped a covenant on TriplePoint debt and has hired Mesa Global to find a buyer.24

  25. Jun 122015
    Sale & shutdown

    Razer deal closes

    Razer acquires the catalogue, the store and the team, not the hardware. Terms undisclosed.25

  26. Jul 272015
    Sale & shutdown

    Deal confirmed, Uhrman leaves

    Razer announces the acquisition. The founder says goodbye on Twitter.2526

  27. Jul 282015
    Developers

    Razer picks up the fund

    Razer says it will honour the $620,000 still unpaid from the Free the Games Fund, on modified terms.2728

  28. May 222019
    Sale & shutdown

    Shutdown notice

    Razer says the Ouya, Forge TV and M.O.J.O. stores will close in five weeks.303132

  29. Jun 252019
    Sale & shutdown

    Switched off

    Accounts are deactivated and the store and website go dark.30

Part 2 of 6

Business

The numbers · Rivals

The money

What a private company left on the record

Ouya never filed with the SEC and never published revenue, losses or the number of consoles it sold. What follows is every figure we could confirm: the Kickstarter page, the funding rounds as reported, what developers and the chief executive said about sales, and the game counter on the company’s own home page. The gaps are gaps in the record.

Money raised, as reported

$ millions. Three disclosed sums. The venture debt that forced the sale was never disclosed.

Data table
Money raised, as reported
PeriodRaised ($M)
Kickstarter, Aug 2012$8.6M
Venture round, May 2013$15M
Alibaba, Jan 2015$10M
Kickstarter: $8,596,474, rounded1. Venture round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers89. Alibaba2324. The three add up to about $33.6M (derived). Fortune reported that Ouya also borrowed from TriplePoint Capital and that the amount “must have been more than” the $10M from Alibaba; the figure itself is unknown.24

What 63,416 backers pledged for

Backers by reward tier on the Kickstarter page as archived in December 2013.

63,416 Kickstarter backers
46,127 73%$99: a console and controller7,755 12%$140: limited brown-metal edition2,500 4%$225: console and two etched controllers1,000 2%$95: early-bird console842 1%$699 and up: developer and patron tiers3,668 6%$10 and $25: username and emblem, no console1,524 2%Not in a listed tier (derived remainder)46,127 73%$99: a console and controller7,755 12%$140: limited brown-metal edition2,500 4%$225: console and two etchedcontrollers1,000 2%$95: early-bird console842 1%$699 and up: developer and patrontiers3,668 6%$10 and $25: username and emblem,no console1,524 2%Not in a listed tier (derivedremainder)
  • $99: a console and controller. The standard reward1
  • $140: limited brown-metal edition. Offered in the last week only1
  • $225: console and two etched controllers. All gone1
  • $95: early-bird console. All gone1
  • $699 and up: developer and patron tiers. 600 + 226 + 4 + 12 (derived sum)
  • $10 and $25: username and emblem, no console. 1,770 + 1,898 (derived sum)
  • Not in a listed tier (derived remainder). 63,416 − 61,892
Data table
What 63,416 backers pledged for
Where it wentAmountShareNote
$99: a console and controller46,12773%The standard reward
$140: limited brown-metal edition7,75512%Offered in the last week only
$225: console and two etched controllers2,5004%All gone
$95: early-bird console1,0002%All gone
$699 and up: developer and patron tiers8421%600 + 226 + 4 + 12 (derived sum)
$10 and $25: username and emblem, no console3,6686%1,770 + 1,898 (derived sum)
Not in a listed tier (derived remainder)1,5242%63,416 − 61,892
Internet Archive copy of the Kickstarter page1. Grouped sums and the remainder are derived. MCV’s count on the day the campaign closed differs by a few backers in two tiers.4 Backers in tiers that included a console: 58,224, or 92% (derived).

Owners who had paid for a game

One month after the retail launch, as the chief executive told The Verge.

  1. 27%Had paid for a gameUhrman’s figure14
  2. 73%Had not (derived)100 − 27
Data table
Owners who had paid for a game
OwnersShare
Had paid for a game27%
Had not (derived)73%
The Verge, July 25, 201314. The company’s own figure, not audited. Every game on the store was free to try by rule.1

What developers said they had made

First month on sale, July 2013, in dollars.

TowerFall (Matt Thorson)
about $21,000
The top-earning game on the console at that point.14
Hidden in Plain Sight (Adam Spragg)
$4,381
From 1,900 copies.14
NimbleBit
$427
122 purchases from 6,508 downloads.13
Data table
What developers said they had made
Game or studioReported earningsNote
TowerFall (Matt Thorson)about $21,000The top-earning game on the console at that point.
Hidden in Plain Sight (Adam Spragg)$4,381From 1,900 copies.
NimbleBit$427122 purchases from 6,508 downloads.
The Verge14 and MCV, citing Edge13. MCV’s figure for TowerFall, 2,000 copies at $15, would be $30,000 before the store’s cut; the two reports are not reconciled in our sources.

The best-selling game, nine months later

7,000
copies of TowerFall sold on Ouya, approximately, as its creator told Eurogamer in April 201421
$500K
TowerFall’s overall revenue once it reached PlayStation 4 and PC21
21%
of that revenue came from Ouya, by Uhrman’s account21
8%
average free-to-paid conversion for 13 of the top 20 games in July 201314
MCV, April 29, 2014, reporting Eurogamer and VG24721; The Verge14.

The Free the Games Fund, two years on

Where the $1 million stood when Razer bought Ouya’s software in July 2015.

$1,000,000 Fund announced in 2013
$620,000 62%Not yet paid out$380,000 38%Paid out or otherwise accounted for (derived remainder)$620,000 62%Not yet paid out$380,000 38%Paid out or otherwise accounted for(derived remainder)
  • Not yet paid out. Razer’s figure, owed to some 27 developers2728
  • Paid out or otherwise accounted for (derived remainder). $1,000,000 − $620,000
Data table
The Free the Games Fund, two years on
Where it wentAmountShareNote
Not yet paid out$620,00062%Razer’s figure, owed to some 27 developers
Paid out or otherwise accounted for (derived remainder)$380,00038%$1,000,000 − $620,000
The Verge27 and KitGuru, citing Eurogamer28. The remainder is derived; no source breaks it down. Razer said it would pay the outstanding sum on new terms: no exclusivity, and free copies for users of its Cortex store to the value of the grant.27

Games on the store, by the home page’s own counter

The number shown on ouya.tv in archived captures, and zero after the store closed.

05001,0001,500Jan ’14Jul ’14Aug ’15Jan ’17Jun ’19After Jun 25, ’1912345605001,0001,500Jan ’14Aug ’15After Jun 25, ’19123456
  1. Jan ’14 · “500 games and counting” A banner on the home page six months after launch. A round number, not a live count.34
  2. Jul ’14 · Ouya Everywhere 925 games as the store arrives on Mad Catz’s M.O.J.O.3422
  3. Aug ’15 · Sold 1,112 games two weeks after Razer confirms the purchase. Razer’s press release says “over 1,000.”3425
  4. Jan ’17 · Razer’s store 1,231 games. The page footer now reads “Razer Group.”34
  5. Jun ’19 · The notice 1,250 games under a banner announcing the shutdown.34
  6. After Jun 25, ’19 · Switched off The store closes on June 25, 2019.30
Data table
Games on the store, by the home page’s own counter
Date of the archived capture (not evenly spaced)Games listed
Jan ’14500
Jul ’14925
Aug ’151,112
Jan ’171,231
Jun ’191,250
After Jun 25, ’190
Read from our screenshots of Internet Archive captures of ouya.tv34. The catalogue kept growing because it cost a developer little to list a game; it says nothing about how many were bought. The final zero is the closure of the store, not a count.

How many Ouya consoles were sold is unknown. The company declined to give a number in July 201314 and we found none in any later primary source. The only firm floor is the Kickstarter page: 58,224 backers chose a reward that included a console (derived).1 Unit figures that circulate online could not be traced to the company or to a tracker and are left out.

The rivals

Too small for the console war, too early for the streaming box

Ouya reached stores five months before the PlayStation 4 and nine months before Amazon put games on a $99 television box. The other Android micro-consoles that shared its store were switched off on the same day it was.

Sony sold in a day about 16 times what Ouya’s campaign drew in a month

1 millionPlayStation 4 consoles sold in North America in the first 24 hours, by Sony’s count19
=
16 ×backers of the Ouya Kickstarter over 30 days1 (63,416; each icon is 63,416 people)

Derived 1,000,000 ÷ 63,416 = 15.8, rounded up to 16 icons. Each icon stands for one Ouya campaign’s worth of backers. Backers are not console sales; Ouya never published those.

Data table
Sony sold in a day about 16 times what Ouya’s campaign drew in a month
Value
PlayStation 4 consoles sold in North America in the first 24 hours, by Sony’s count1 million
backers of the Ouya Kickstarter over 30 days63,416
Ratio16 (derived)
Sony Computer Entertainment press release, November 17, 201319; Kickstarter1.

Boxes for the television, 2013 to 2015

What each one was, and what became of it.

Ouya

Store shut 2019
Jan 2014Jun 2019
$99 June 2013. Sold to Razer without its hardware in 2015.1025

Mad Catz M.O.J.O.

Store shut 2019
$199 Price as of July 2014, when it became the first outside device to carry the Ouya store. Its store closed with Ouya’s.2230

Razer Forge TV

Store shut 2019
n/a Razer’s own Android TV console, the intended home for Ouya’s users and games. 9to5Google says it was on the market for a matter of months.2532

Amazon Fire TV

Still sold
$99 April 2014, with games from EA, Disney and others and a $39.99 controller.20

PlayStation 4

Maker still in consoles
1M in a day November 15, 2013 in the United States and Canada.19
Data table
Boxes for the television, 2013 to 2015
CompanyOutcomeLaunch priceNotesSeries
OuyaStore shut 2019$99June 2013. Sold to Razer without its hardware in 2015.500, 925, 1112, 1231, 1250, 0
Mad Catz M.O.J.O.Store shut 2019$199Price as of July 2014, when it became the first outside device to carry the Ouya store. Its store closed with Ouya’s.
Razer Forge TVStore shut 2019n/aRazer’s own Android TV console, the intended home for Ouya’s users and games. 9to5Google says it was on the market for a matter of months.
Amazon Fire TVStill sold$99April 2014, with games from EA, Disney and others and a $39.99 controller.
PlayStation 4Maker still in consoles1M in a dayNovember 15, 2013 in the United States and Canada.
Company press releases19202225, Razer’s shutdown notice30 and 9to5Google32. The sparkline for Ouya is the home-page game counter34, not sales. We have no launch price for the Forge TV in our sources.
Switched off

Ouya

In stores
Jun 25, 201310
Price
$99.99 with one controller5
Who made it
A startup funded on Kickstarter1
Games
Any developer; every game free to try1
Other uses
Media apps promised in the campaign1
Fate
Hardware dropped 2015, store shut 20192530
Still sold

Amazon Fire TV

In stores
Apr 2, 201420
Price
$99; game controller $39.99 extra20
Who made it
Amazon20
Games
From EA, Disney, Gameloft, Mojang, 2K and others20
Other uses
Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus20
Fate
Still on sale (general knowledge)

Part 3 of 6

Brand

Commercials & footage · Old website · Brand gallery

Commercials & footage

The pitch, the reviews and the goodbye

Ouya was sold on video before it existed. These are the campaign film and a later commercial from the company’s own channel, two reviews from 2013, a conference talk by the founder and a news item from the day she left. Dates are upload dates unless the caption says otherwise.

Commercial · 2012The official Ouya Kickstarter video The three-minute film from the campaign page, as posted on the company’s own YouTube channel on August 29, 2012, after the campaign had closed with $8,596,474.361 Watch on YouTube
News segment · 2013The Verge: “Ouya hands-on review” Published by The Verge on April 4, 2013 with its written review of the backers’ console, which scored 3.5 out of 10.7 Watch on YouTube
News segment · 2013IGN Reviews: Ouya IGN’s video review of the retail console, published July 26, 2013, a month after it reached stores. Its verdict is IGN’s; we cite no figure from it. Watch on YouTube
Event · 2013Julie Uhrman at XOXO Festival A 19-minute talk by the founder, posted by the festival on October 18, 2013, a few weeks after the Free the Games Fund was rewritten.17 It is her account, not a source for any figure on this page. Watch on YouTube
Commercial · 2014“OUYA – TV Commercial” A 31-second spot uploaded to the company’s channel on February 25, 2014 under that title.36 Where and when it aired on television is not in our sources. Watch on YouTube
News segment · 2015IGN News: “Ouya CEO Leaves Company Following Razer Acquisition” A one-minute news item published July 27, 2015, the day Razer confirmed the purchase and Uhrman announced her departure.2526 Watch on YouTube

Videos are embedded from the services that host them and load only when you press play. YouTube embeds use youtube-nocookie.com. Each video belongs to its uploader or rights holder and is shown here for commentary; we do not host any of the files. We found no embeddable footage of the June 25, 2019 shutdown itself from a news organisation.

The old website

ouya.tv, from “pre-order” to “shutting down”

Screenshots of pages saved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, stored as images. Click one to open the original capture.34

Screenshot of http://www.ouya.tv/ as archived Aug 9, 2012

Captured Aug 9, 2012

The day the campaign closed

A single page: “Pre-order OUYA now,” the slogan and a sign-up box. The Kickstarter page sent latecomers here.1

The video in the white box was not archived.

Open this capture on the Wayback Machine

Text preserved in the archived pages

“Cracking open the last closed platform: the TV.”
ouya.tv · Aug 9, 201234
“Once you’re in—it takes just $99—every game on OUYA is free to try, free to love and absolutely free to brag about.”
ouya.tv · Jul 10, 201334
“1112 games and counting”, with tiles for “OUYA in China” and controller faceplates at $9.99 each.
ouya.tv · Aug 11, 201534
“NOTICE: This website will be shutting down on June 25, 2019.”
ouya.tv · Jun 2, 201934

Embedded videos in these pages were not archived and show as empty boxes. The home page counter was drawn by a script; the July 2013 capture shows it mid-animation, so we do not use that reading as a figure.

Part 4 of 6

People

People · Press

The people

Who made it, who backed it, who switched it off

Titles are as given in the press at the time. Later careers are left out where we have no source we opened.

People (6)
Name and roleWhat they didAfterwards
Portrait of Julie UhrmanJulie UhrmanFounder and CEO, 2012 – 2015

Described by The Verge in 2012 as coming from IGN. She fronted the Kickstarter campaign, defended the first month’s sales as “better than we expected,” wrote the 2015 memo that put the company up for sale and announced her departure the day Razer confirmed the deal.2142426

Yves BéharDesigner, fuseproject

The designer of the Jambox speaker, named on the Kickstarter page as the console’s designer. A $5,000 reward tier offered a day with him and his team in San Francisco; four backers took it.1

Muffi GhadialiProduct lead (as reported in 2012)

The Verge reported in July 2012 that he appeared to be leaving Amazon’s Lab126, where he had helped ship the Kindle, for Ouya.2 His exact title is not in our sources.

Ed FriesAdviser

Listed among the project’s advisers in 2012, with Amol Sarva and Peter Pham. The Verge described him as “of Xbox fame.”2

Matt ThorsonDeveloper of TowerFall

Made the console’s best-selling game. It sold about 7,000 copies there, and did better once it moved to PlayStation 4 and PC.21

Min-Liang TanCo-founder and CEO, Razer

Bought Ouya’s catalogue, store and team in 2015 without its hardware, said Razer would honour the unpaid developer grants, and ran the store until 2019.252730

Portraits. Julie Uhrman: Photo: Duncan Rawlinson - Duncan.co, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

The clippings

What they said at the time

Press (10)
We never expected to do this well and be this well-received.
Julie Uhrman, to Engadget, Aug 9, 20123
The truth is, openness is hard.
Julie Uhrman, on the Free the Games Fund, quoted by Game Developer, Sep 11, 201315

  1. Tim Stevens, Engadget, Apr 3, 20136

    The version of OUYA shipping now should be considered a beta release, and anyone hoping for anything more is in for some disappointment.

  2. Ouya, announcing the three-week delay, May 9, 20138

    The demand we’re seeing from gamers and our retailers is beyond our expectations.

  3. Liam Callahan, NPD analyst, as reported by MCV, Jul 19, 201312

    Retail sales for Ouya […] were relatively light for a new console.

  4. Matt Thorson, developer of TowerFall, quoted by MCV, Jul 22, 201313

    Sales have been surprisingly high for a new game on a new console.

  5. Matt Thorson, to Eurogamer, quoted by MCV, Apr 29, 201421

    Being the best game on Ouya isn’t a huge deal, but it is nice. It still sells on there.

  6. Julie Uhrman, memo to investors, quoted by Fortune, Apr 28, 201524

    We believe we’ve built something real and valuable.

  7. Julie Uhrman, in Razer’s press release, Jul 27, 201525

    Razer is the perfect home for OUYA and the team that made it all happen.

  8. Greg Kumparak, TechCrunch, May 22, 201931

    Razer kept the OUYA store running post-acquisition, a ghost of its former self.

Part 5 of 6

Verdict

Cause of death · What if · Afterlife

Cause of death

The autopsy

Tap a cause to see the evidence. The percentages are our editorial weighting. The evidence under each one is sourced.

Cause of death, by editorial weight

One square is one percentage point. The weights are our judgment, not a measurement.

  1. 30%A store where few people paid
  2. 25%Shipped before it was finished
  3. 20%Squeezed from both sides
  4. 15%Venture debt and a covenant
  5. 10%Goodwill spent on its own developers
Data table
Cause of death, by editorial weight
CauseWeight
A store where few people paid30%
Shipped before it was finished25%
Squeezed from both sides20%
Venture debt and a covenant15%
Goodwill spent on its own developers10%

The rule that every game be free to try was the pitch, and it was the problem. A month after launch 27% of owners had bought anything, the top earner had made about $21,000, and nine months later the best-selling game had sold about 7,000 copies. A console sold at $99 needed the store to carry it.11421

The machine went to its backers in a state Engadget called a beta and The Verge scored 3.5 out of 10, and those reviews were the public’s first look. Retail-unit reviews three months later averaged 62 out of 100.6711

Sony sold a million PlayStation 4s in a day five months after Ouya’s launch, and Amazon put games on a $99 television box four months after that. Ouya’s own answer, in March 2014, was to start moving its store onto other people’s hardware.192022

Ouya borrowed from TriplePoint Capital on top of its venture round. In 2015 it tripped a covenant, failed to restructure, and its chief executive told investors the sale would be quick because of “our debtholder’s timeline.” Alibaba’s $10M three months earlier did not cover it.24

The Free the Games Fund was gamed within weeks, the first response blamed nobody and fixed nothing, developers pulled games, and two years later $620,000 of the $1M was still unpaid when the company was sold.15161827

Editorial judgment: the weights are an interpretive model by the Spectre Brands editors, not a measured quantity. Ouya published no accounts, so the evidence is what the company, its developers and the press said at the time. How much each cause contributed is a matter of opinion.

The fork in the road

What if…

Three decisions where the story could have gone differently. The “What if” panels are speculation, labeled as such.

What happened

Backers’ consoles shipped from March 28, 2013 and were reviewed as a product in early April. Engadget said the system was “simply not ready for retail”; The Verge wrote that it was “being sold as a product, not a prototype, and that’s just wrong.”6733 The retail launch followed on June 25, after a three-week delay the company attributed to demand.810

What if speculative

Holding the backers’ units until the software and controller were finished would have broken the March promise on the Kickstarter page1 and cost months. It would also have meant the first reviews were of a finished machine. It would not have put more games on it.

What happened

Ouya announced Ouya Everywhere in March 2014, nine months after launch, and reached its first outside device in July 2014.22 By the time it was for sale, the memo to investors pitched the catalogue, not the console: “the largest library of Android content for the TV.”24 Razer bought exactly that and left the hardware.25

What if speculative

Starting as a storefront and developer programme for other companies’ Android boxes would have spared the cost of making hardware. It would also have had no Kickstarter moment: the $99 box was what 58,224 backers (derived) paid for.1 A store with the same conversion rates on someone else’s box is not obviously a better business.

What happened

After its $15M round in 2013, Ouya “quietly secured some venture debt from TriplePoint Capital,” in Fortune’s words. A tripped covenant in 2015 put the company on the debtholder’s timetable, with expressions of interest due within the month.24

What if speculative

Without the loan there would have been no covenant to trip and no forced deadline, and Alibaba’s $10M might have bought a slower search for a partner.23 There would also have been less money to spend in 2013 and 2014. Since the amount borrowed was never disclosed, how much time it bought or cost is unknowable.

Where are they now

The afterlife

Ouya

  1. The store and accounts

    Switched off

    Razer deactivated every account on June 25, 2019. Its notice said funds left in accounts “may be turned over to the applicable authority,” and that downloaded games would keep working only if they did not validate a purchase at launch.3032

  2. The hardware

    Dropped

    Razer said in 2015 that it was “not retaining interest in OUYA hardware or related other assets.”25 What happened to those assets, and to Ouya, Inc. itself, is not in our sources.

  3. The name

    Unused

    Razer’s 2015 press release said it planned to publish Android TV games “under the OUYA moniker as a separate interest.”25 We found no product released under the name after the 2019 shutdown, and we have not checked who holds the trademark registration today.

  4. The team

    Folded in

    The technical and developer-relations staff joined Razer’s software team in 2015 to work on its Forge TV platform, whose store closed on the same day as Ouya’s.2530

  5. The developers’ fund

    Paid, on new terms

    Razer said it would honour the $620,000 still unpaid from the Free the Games Fund, to some 27 developers, dropping exclusivity and asking for free copies for its own store’s users instead.2728 Whether every developer was paid is not in our sources.

  6. The consoles

    Kept alive by volunteers

    A community-written replacement server lets an Ouya sign in and install games again after the official shutdown, by pointing the console at a new address in a configuration file. It is a static stand-in, stores no user data and takes no payments.35

  7. TowerFall

    Outlived it

    The game that sold about 7,000 copies on Ouya reached $500,000 in revenue after moving to PlayStation 4 and PC.21

Who has owned the Ouya name

One sale, of the software and the name without the box.

  1. Jul 2012

    Ouya (the startup)

    Raises $8,596,474 on Kickstarter for a $99 Android console.1

  2. May 2013

    Ouya, with venture investors

    Kleiner Perkins leads a $15M round with Mayfield, Nvidia, Shasta and Occam. Venture debt from TriplePoint follows.824

    $15M round
  3. Jan 2015

    Ouya, with Alibaba as an investor

    Alibaba invests to bring the catalogue to its set-top box in China.23

    $10M
  4. Apr 2015

    Ouya, for sale

    A debt covenant is tripped and a bank is hired to find a buyer.24

  5. Jun 12, 2015

    Razer

    Acquires the content catalogue, the online store and the team. Not the hardware.25

    Undisclosed, paid in cash26
  6. Jun 25, 2019

    Razer

    Shuts down the store, accounts and website.30

  7. Today

    No known user of the name

    Nothing is sold as Ouya. Volunteers run a replacement server for old consoles.35 The trademark’s current status is unknown to us.

Data table
Who has owned the Ouya name
WhenOwnerWhat happenedPrice
Jul 2012Ouya (the startup)Raises $8,596,474 on Kickstarter for a $99 Android console.
May 2013Ouya, with venture investorsKleiner Perkins leads a $15M round with Mayfield, Nvidia, Shasta and Occam. Venture debt from TriplePoint follows.$15M round
Jan 2015Ouya, with Alibaba as an investorAlibaba invests to bring the catalogue to its set-top box in China.$10M
Apr 2015Ouya, for saleA debt covenant is tripped and a bank is hired to find a buyer.
Jun 12, 2015RazerAcquires the content catalogue, the online store and the team. Not the hardware.Undisclosed, paid in cash
Jun 25, 2019RazerShuts down the store, accounts and website.
TodayNo known user of the nameNothing is sold as Ouya. Volunteers run a replacement server for old consoles. The trademark’s current status is unknown to us.
Kickstarter1, PocketGamer.biz823, Fortune24, Razer2530 and Engadget26. Ouya did not go through bankruptcy as far as our sources show; the red markers denote the forced sale and the shutdown.

Sources & data notes

Show your work

Ouya was a private, venture-backed company and filed nothing with the SEC. The primary documents are its own Kickstarter page, press releases from Ouya, Razer, Sony and Amazon, Razer’s shutdown notice and the archived ouya.tv. The rest is the technology and trade press of 2012 to 2019, read in full.

  1. Kickstarter, “OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console”, campaign page by OUYA, funding period Jul 10 – Aug 9, 2012 (Internet Archive capture of Dec 31, 2013). Totals, reward tiers, specifications and campaign text.
  2. Sean Hollister, “Ouya: a $99 hackable Android game console designed by Yves Behar”, The Verge, Jul 3, 2012.
  3. Ben Gilbert, “Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close”, Engadget, Aug 9, 2012.
  4. “Ouya Kickstarter closes on $8,596,475, attracts 12 $10k pledges”, MCV, Aug 9, 2012.
  5. Sal Romano, “Ouya to launch at retail in June”, Gematsu, Feb 5, 2013.
  6. Tim Stevens, “OUYA review (founding backer edition)”, Engadget, Apr 3, 2013.
  7. David Pierce, “Ouya review: can an indie console take on Sony and Microsoft?”, The Verge, Apr 4, 2013.
  8. Jon Jordan, “Ouya closes $15 million round, pushes back US retail launch until 25 June”, PocketGamer.biz, May 9, 2013.
  9. “OUYA Raises Another Cool $15M, Launch Delayed to June 25th”, HotHardware, May 9, 2013.
  10. “Ouya officially on sale to the public today, already sold out on Amazon”, Droid Gamers, Jun 25, 2013.
  11. Kevin Parrish, “OUYA Launches to Lukewarm Early Reviews”, Tom’s Hardware, Jul 2, 2013. A roundup of scores collected by gdgt.
  12. “US Ouya sales ‘relatively light for a new console’; Exclusive title TowerFall moves to PC”, MCV, Jul 19, 2013, reporting NPD’s comment to Joystiq.
  13. “Ouya devs reveal software sales numbers”, MCV, Jul 22, 2013, reporting figures given to Edge.
  14. Nathan Olivarez-Giles, “Ouya CEO defends game sales as ‘better than we expected’”, The Verge, Jul 25, 2013.
  15. Mike Rose, “Ouya’s Free the Games debacle comes to a head”, Gamasutra (now Game Developer), Sep 11, 2013.
  16. Matthew Diener, “Developers pull Ouya games as company responds to Free the Game fund farce”, PocketGamer.biz, Sep 11, 2013.
  17. Matthew Diener, “That Dragon, Cancer dev defends Ouya as Free Your Games fund is re-worked”, PocketGamer.biz, Sep 23, 2013.
  18. Mike Suszek, “Gridiron Thunder to launch September 30”, Joystiq (archived on Engadget), Sep 12, 2013.
  19. Sony Computer Entertainment, “PlayStation 4 Sales Surpass 1 Million Units in North America in 24 Hours”, press release, Nov 17, 2013.
  20. Amazon, “Introducing Amazon Fire TV”, press release, Apr 2, 2014.
  21. “Ouya’s best-selling game has sold 7,000 copies”, MCV, Apr 29, 2014, reporting Matt Thorson’s interview with Eurogamer and Julie Uhrman’s comment to VG247.
  22. OUYA and Mad Catz Interactive, “OUYA Debuts on Mad Catz M.O.J.O. Micro-Console for Android”, press release, Jul 1, 2014.
  23. Matt Suckley, “Ouya leverages its library to earn $10 million investment from Alibaba”, PocketGamer.biz, Jan 30, 2015.
  24. Dan Primack, “Exclusive: Gaming startup OUYA needs to find a buyer quickly”, Fortune, Apr 28, 2015.
  25. Razer, “Razer Acquires OUYA Software Assets”, press release, Jul 27, 2015.
  26. Daniel Cooper, “OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman leaves the company she co-founded”, Engadget, Jul 27, 2015.
  27. Adi Robertson, “Ouya left indie game developers in the lurch, but Razer is trying to help”, The Verge, Jul 28, 2015.
  28. Jon Martindale, “Razer to honour Ouya Free the Games funding commitments”, KitGuru, Jul 29, 2015, citing Eurogamer.
  29. “Indie developers out thousands of dollars in OUYA-Razer deal (updated)”, Engadget, Jul 28, 2015.
  30. Razer Support, Forge TV / OUYA shutdown notice and FAQ, Internet Archive capture of May 22, 2019.
  31. Greg Kumparak, “Seven years later, the OUYA is dead for real”, TechCrunch, May 22, 2019.
  32. Ben Schoon, “Razer Forge TV, OUYA will shut down for good next month”, 9to5Google, May 22, 2019.
  33. Jenni Lada, “Ouya Service Ending On June 25, 2019”, Siliconera, May 22, 2019.
  34. Internet Archive Wayback Machine, captures of ouya.tv: Aug 9, 2012, Jul 10, 2013, Jan 1, 2014, Jul 1, 2014, Aug 11, 2015, Jan 11, 2017 and Jun 2, 2019.
  35. Christian Weiske, “Community OUYA API server” (the stouyapi project), a volunteer-run replacement for the Ouya store server.
  36. OUYA’s YouTube channel: “OUYA - Official OUYA Kickstarter Video”, uploaded Aug 29, 2012, and “OUYA - TV Commercial”, uploaded Feb 25, 2014.
Data notes (11)

Data notes

Derived: “About nine times the goal” is $8,596,474 ÷ $950,000 = 9.05.1 58,224 backers in tiers that included a console is 1,000 + 46,127 + 7,755 + 2,500 + 600 + 226 + 4 + 12, and 92% is 58,224 ÷ 63,416; in the backer flow, 842 is 600 + 226 + 4 + 12, 3,668 is 1,770 + 1,898 and the 1,524 remainder is 63,416 − 61,892.1 73% of owners not having bought a game is 100 − 27.14 About $33.6M raised is $8.6M + $15M + $10M.1823 The $380,000 in the fund flow is $1,000,000 − $620,000.27 “Six years to the day” is June 25, 2013 to June 25, 2019.1030 16 icons is 1,000,000 ÷ 63,416 = 15.8, rounded up.191 September 8, 2013 as the close of the Gridiron Thunder campaign is “last Sunday” counted back from an article of Thursday, September 12.18 The original retail date of June 4 comes from The Verge’s April review; three weeks later is June 25.79

Company figures, not audited: The 27% and 8% figures, and the claim that 21% of TowerFall’s revenue came from Ouya, are Julie Uhrman’s statements to the press.1421 The developer earnings are the developers’ own statements, relayed by The Verge, Edge via MCV and Eurogamer via MCV.131421 Sony’s one million is its own “sold through” figure.19 Razer supplied the $620,000 and the count of 27 developers.2728

Estimates and approximations: TowerFall’s 7,000 copies on Ouya is its creator’s approximation.21 The gdgt average of 62 out of 100 mixed pre-launch and retail reviews, as Tom’s Hardware noted.11

The game counter and the card sparkline: The series 500, 925, 1,112, 1,231, 1,250 was read from our own screenshots of Internet Archive captures of ouya.tv.34 The first value is a “500 games and counting” banner, a round number; the others are the page’s counter. The final 0 is not a count but the closure of the store on June 25, 2019.30 The series therefore mixes a banner, counter readings and an event, and measures listings, not sales. The July 2013 capture shows the counter mid-animation at 571 and is not used.

Conflicts between sources: Kickstarter’s page gives $8,596,474; MCV and others printed $8,596,475.14 The archived page lists 46,127 backers at $99 and 1,770 at $10; MCV’s same-day count has 46,124 and 1,170.14 The page calls the funding period 29 days; July 10 to August 9 is 30 calendar days.1 The Verge put TowerFall’s first-month earnings at about $21,000; MCV’s 2,000 copies at $15 implies $30,000 gross.1314 Razer’s press release counts “over 1,000” games; The Verge the next day wrote 1,500.2527 Ouya’s location is Los Angeles on Kickstarter and Santa Monica in Fortune and in the 2014 press release.12224 Droid Gamers described the delayed launch as moving from June to July; the launch date was June 25.910

Unknown: How many consoles were sold. Revenue, losses and headcount in any year. How much Ouya borrowed from TriplePoint Capital and what Razer paid. What became of the hardware assets and of Ouya, Inc. after the sale. Whether every Free the Games developer was eventually paid. Who holds the Ouya trademark today: we did not check the trademark register, so the “dead” tag rests on the documented shutdown and on finding no product or business using the name. The exact date the Free the Games Fund was announced; our sources place it in 2013, before July 25.1427

Unverified and left out: Console unit totals that circulate online. Reports that a venture partner joined Ouya’s board in 2013 and of a 2014 distribution deal in China beyond the one-line mention in Fortune.24 Julie Uhrman’s later career. An account of police being called to Ouya’s display outside E3 2013, which we saw only as a video headline.

Secondary sourcing: Several figures reach us second-hand: NPD’s comment via Joystiq via MCV12; Edge’s developer figures via MCV13; Eurogamer’s and VG247’s via MCV21; Eurogamer’s and Polygon’s Razer reporting via KitGuru and The Verge2728; Uhrman’s memo via Fortune24. The shipping dates of December 28, 2012 and March 28, 2013 come from a 2019 Siliconera summary.33 The original Joystiq article on Gridiron Thunder survives on Engadget’s domain.18

How we read the sources: Every linked page was opened for this post-mortem. Kickstarter blocks automated requests, so the campaign page was read in the Internet Archive capture linked above; Razer’s 2019 notice no longer exists on its site and was read in the Internet Archive capture. Video upload dates are from the YouTube pages. We did not transcribe the videos and cite no figures from them.

Images: The console photograph is by Evan-Amos (public domain) and the portrait of Julie Uhrman is by Duncan Rawlinson (CC BY-SA 2.0), both from Wikimedia Commons. Website images are our screenshots of Internet Archive captures. The four drawings are original illustrations. The accent colour is the site’s orange, darkened to meet contrast requirements.

General knowledge: That Amazon still sells Fire TV devices and Sony still makes PlayStation consoles. That Android is Google’s mobile operating system.

More post-mortems

Sega Dreamcast

1998 – 2001

Dead
Outcompeted
510 days from U.S. launch to the exit

Atari

1972 – 1984

Ghost
Strategy and management
$538M lost in 1983

3DO

1991 – 2003

Ghost
Strategy and management
$4.6M raised when every game and patent was auctioned

Browse all 38