Seven years after it premiered and was to take the video game world by storm, the Ouya has scheduled its final bow — June 25.
What started out as a runaway Kickstarter success will soon be dead, permanently. The Ouya, an Android-powered mini console, was supposed to take mobile gaming to TV screens, among many of its ambitious goals. But despite its $8.5 million crowdfunding campaign, it never really took off beyond being a novelty item with lofty promises.
Ouya's death has been a long time coming, which means it comes as little surprise. The hardware itself was discontinued ever since Razer purchased Ouya's assets back in 2015. Actually, the more surprising thing here is why Razer has kept it alive for so long.
Ouya Is Dead
Razer will be deactivating accounts on June 25. After that, the company says access to the Discover section will cease to be available. Games downloaded that appear in Play may still function if they do not require a purchase validation upon launch. Even still, games on the Ouya platform will stop working after the cutoff date in question. Razer notes that download servers will also go dark on that date, so for those who want to keep certain games for the long term, make sure to have them saved on the console. Otherwise, they're kaput.
People who weren't around when the Ouya was gaining traction are now probably asking, what made it so popular in the first place? Well, back in 2012, the device was poised to be a console that was affordable and easy to develop for. Equipped with this promise, the creators managed to generate a ton of support both from developers and casual onlookers, donating bits and pieces that ended up being $8.5 million, as mentioned. It's still one of Kickstarter's most supported projects ever.
Ouya Issues
To its merit, the creators did manage to deliver a console, but the final product unfortunately seemed merely a shadow of the hype built around it. The controller, for one, felt cheap and hastily designed, not to mention difficult to use. To make matters worse, the console itself ran into some performance issues that made it difficult to play games at times. As a result, most developers didn't even bother making titles for the platform, despite it being positioned as a console that's very easy to develop for.
Years later, its light is scheduled to go out rather unceremoniously. So long, Ouya.
