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4:00 PM, July 31, 2012
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By ALAN DANZIS
Unless you?ve been living under a rock these last few weeks, you?ve heard of OUYA. (You just may not be able to pronounce it.)
To-date, the $99 Android video game console where you?re actually encourage to hack the box, has raised $5.8 million on Kickstarter, far exceeding their original goal of $950,000 and with eight days to go. (In fact, they had raised their target amount in under 12 hours.)
Along with the insane press coverage praising the success and OUYA itself, there started to become a backlash from media and fans. Could they actually produce a box? Raising money was one thing ? especially in days like this with so many successful Kickstarter game projects ? but putting in place a manufacturing system for a video game console and lining up developers? that is something else.
I recently spoke with CEO Julie Uhrman over email about OUYA, their plans, what the critics are saying and more.
What were your expectations when you decided to start the Kickstarter? And then, how did you react when you saw that they were wildly exceeded?I?m sure?just in the first day?
We needed Kickstarter to fund our effort, and specifically to take OUYA from a functional prototype to final product for the market.
We have been, of course, totally blown away by the level of support OUYA has received. With 8 days left on our Kickstarter campaign, we?ve have raised almost 6 million dollars, and have more than 45,000 backers cheering us on. What is amazing about that number, to me, is that those are the people who actually opened their wallet and donated. I have to assume that there are tens of thousands more cheering us on from the sidelines who may not have backed us but certainly want to see us succeed. It?s pretty exciting to think about that, and it keeps us motivated. We want to make those backers proud: we are laser focused on delivering an amazing game experience in March 2013.
A lot of the early coverage and buzz coming out of your initial days was very, very positive. Then, it started to get a little negative as people said you wouldn?t be able to deliver, you didn?t ask for enough money, etc. Walk me through what it was like from the team to go from overwhelmingly positive coverage to negative in seemingly days and even hours?
We were prepared for it. It?s not surprising that people would want to kick the tires a bit. Until we have a product on the market that people can put their hands on, we?ll have to get comfortable with skepticism.
What was a bit frustrating was that so many folks wanted to review us, and compare us to existing options already on store shelves, as if we?re a final product on the market. And that?s just not realistic, given where we are. We have made it very clear that we are an early stage project and that we turned to Kickstarter to take us from functional prototype to OUYAs in the living room. Just like those skeptics?we?d like to fast forward. But ultimately, we can?t. We just need to stay focused on delivering the best possible game experience on OUYA.
Thankfully, the skeptics seem to have quieted down. I think that?s partly because we were able to lay bare the process both of vetting OUYA?s path to market prior to going on Kickstarter, and what our next steps will be. We?re not building a rocket here: the tech is very standard. The innovation lies in the business model and the relationship we will have with developers?and of course, the beautiful package provided by Yves Behar both with the controller and the console.
For now, we say, ?Bring on the tough questions!? They keep us on our toes, sharpen our skills and will help us deliver an even better product when we go to market next year.
Let?s get this out of the way: When do you think you will have a launch date ready to be announced?
We?ve stated publicly that the first units will ship to backers in March 2013.
How far along is the prototype?
We?ve got a functional prototype that plays games. The software is concurrently in development. We?re in the final stages of conversations with leading ODMs and will select a production partner soon.
How many people are play testing the controller for usability? Is what we?ve seen so far the final design?
This is confidential. What we can say is this: many of the developers we?ve spoken to are eager to play a role in the design and development. For example, when we first reached out to Adam Saltsman of Canabalt he wanted to play a role in the controller design. People like Adam have the unique perspective of both a gamer and a developer which can inform design and development of our controller.
Could the costs for the current prototype change as it gets closer to market? What if it winds up costing more than you anticipated?
It won?t. We?ve crunched the numbers and designed our prototype and we?re right where we need to be. We added Ethernet as a feature to our hardware design, but we probably won?t add much more. We will not exceed the $99 cost of the console. The whole point of OUYA is to be accessible to gamers and developers ? we have no intention of raising the cost of the console past what we?ve already quoted to our backers, and there is no reason to think that we would have to.
How are conversations with developers going so far?
We?ve been bombarded with requests to meet with developers. Our goal is to get back to each and everyone. We?re talking to a range of people from beloved indie game makers, to top publishers of big franchises.
And, we?ve already announced a partnership with OnLive to bring hundreds of games on demand to OUYA and our first exclusive title, built from the ground up from OUYA: Robert Bowling?s episodic prequel to his upcoming Human Element.
Describe your relationship with Google. What do they think?
We love Google. But we?re not having any partnership conversations if that?s what you are asking.
There have been a ton of successful Kickstarters recently centered around gaming. What do you say to fans that are worried they?re spending all this money, not just with you guys, but on Kickstarter in general, and haven?t gotten firm releases dates yet. Plus? products seem so far off from reality. Are fans going to get burned out soon on supporting Kickstarters?
This is a question for Kickstarter. We don?t feel comfortable speaking for them.
Who do you see as your true competitors? Do you see Xbox and XBLA in particular as a competitor? Or do your competitors not exist yet?
I think that there are a number of companies that might be viewed as competitors. That said, we?re focused on what we are doing: our goal is to open up console gaming, making it more accessible both to gamers and developers.
One of the things you were praised for early was that you?re practically telling people to hack the device. How do you balance that need with appealing to Android fanboys who love to hack, with the needs of a publisher who worries that that creates an open-door to piracy?
OUYA will be just as secure as any other Android-powered device. In fact, because all the paid content will require authentication with OUYA?s servers, we have an added layer of security. Hacking and openness are about getting what you want to do with the hardware. Rooting the device won?t give you any more access to the software.
Finally ? You?ve asked fans what games they want on the platform?what do you personally want to play?
Is it fair to say we want it all?!
I guess what I am most excited by is the prospect that developers will want to create new types of gameplay inspired by our unique controller. I?m not sure what that will look like, but I respect the creative talents of game makers?they know that stuff better than I do?and I can?t wait for them to surprise and delight me. It?s really exciting to think about the potential of games designed specifically for OUYA.
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Article source: http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/gamereport/succeed_console_julie_uhrman_game_jsV3XUUJsOEsZkrY6RK4bJ
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