Julie Uhrman
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'Towerfall,' OUYA's most popular game, only sold 7,000 copies
If you're looking for a metric for the OUYA's (lack of) success, then the developer behind one of the platform's best selling games can help you out. Towerfall creator Matt Thorson has revealed that despite being the number-one title on the Android platform, the game has sold a measly 7,000 copies. In a conversation with Eurogamer, the developer said that the title was a smash hit on PS4, with PC sales coming in a close second, but added that "being the best game on OUYA isn't a huge deal, but it is nice" -- ouch. In response, OUYA's CEO Julie Uhrman has said that her company "helped put Towerfall and Matt on the map," adding that the company is "finding the next great developers and making them household names." That said, we suspect that since PS4 and PC sales account for nearly 80 percent of Thorson's $500,000 in revenue, we imagine the next great developer might just choose to bypass OUYA entirely.
Ouya Everywhere puts games on TV, PC without the Ouya
Ouya Everywhere aims to put Ouya games on devices that aren't Ouyas, such as televisions or PCs, CEO Julie Uhrman revealed to Slashdot and A-list Daily. Uhrman plans to announce details about Ouya's software initiative this week. "One thing you'll start to see is Ouya on other people's devices," Uhrman told A-list. She continued, "We started with a $99 box, but we always wanted to create a console platform that can live on other people's devices. We just knew it was going to take us a little bit of time to get it ready. Now we think the software is good enough, it's ready to be embedded in other people's devices. We actually started having some of these conversations during CES, and the takeup was so great that we're really jumping into the strategy with both feet this year." Ouya signed one deal at CES, Uhrman told Slashdot. The company aims to craft a games-delivery system that "could be another set-top box" or "could be the TV itself," she said. Ouya is talking with partners about bringing its games to PC, and the company is "thinking about" building a Steam-like application. Porting Ouya's Android games to other platforms is conceivable, according to Uhrman: "Based on our strategy to bring games to gamers wherever they are, it is absolutely conceivable that we will." Update: Ouya confirmed reports with our friends at Engadget. [Image: Knightmare Tower, Juicy Beast Studio]
Uhrman: It's 'inevitable' major publishers will develop for Ouya
It's "inevitable" that big publishers will make games for Ouya, the company's CEO Julie Uhrman said at GamesBeat 2013. "The publishers are always late to the newest business models," she said. "Is it likely an Activision or an [Electronic Arts] will come to Ouya? Absolutely." Uhrman doesn't expect Activision to bring Call of Duty to her tiny Android console – the big publishers will make games specific to Ouya, she said: "The reason I don't have a Call of Duty or a Madden or a FIFA on Ouya is because there's a perfectly good place to play those games today. When those publishers come to us, they're going to bring the perfect game [for] our platform .... It won't be the same thing." This week, Uhrman announced Ouya would begin shipping with a redesigned controller later in the year, and the hardware would get an update in 2014, fulfilling the company's promise to relaunch the console annually.
Ouya CEO open to cloud gaming, Discover store on third-party hardware
Ouya Inc. has offered support for cloud gaming service OnLive from the launch of its open-ended gaming device, the Ouya. Once OnLive filed for bankruptcy, however, Ouya began talking with other vendors about supporting its platform, CEO Julie Uhrman's recent interview with VentureBeat revealed. Uhrman stated that there is "absolutely a role for cloud gaming on Ouya," but did not offer specifics as to which service the company is considering partnering with other than "all the ones that you're thinking." More curiously, Uhrman said she's also open to the idea of Ouya's Discover store appearing on third-party hardware. The hypothetical deal would work only if the partner's product offered "the exact same specifications" as future Ouya devices in order to avoid fragmentation for developers.
Ouya retail presence expands to all Target locations
The Ouya's brick and mortar retail presence will grow to include 1,800 Target locations, Ouya founder Julie Uhrman told Polygon. While the Ouya has existed within Target stores for some time, its availability has been limited to select locations, rather than every location, as will be the case now. The Android microconsole's retail packaging has been spruced up to take advantage of its new-found exposure, Uhrman said. Target will push the device in its winter circular, through video adverts in its electronics departments and with special displays starting in December, though the Ouya's expanded availability goes into effect this month. Demo units are planned for early next year – Uhrman called production of the kiosks "incredibly expensive," a fact compounded by the necessity to design a wired controller for the system. In related news, Ouya is also in the process of negotiating availability at Wal-mart. "I would expect something, us to announce something with them soon," Uhrman said.
Rose and Time returns to Ouya following funding program changes
Indie puzzler Rose and Time returned to Ouya after the game was pulled from the store in September by its developer, Sophie Houlden. The "time-travel stealth" game was initially removed from Ouya's store during the height of the controversy surrounding the console manufacturer's Free the Games Fund, a program designed to match funds donated by crowdfunders for timed-exclusive Ouya games on Kickstarter. In her latest blog, Houlden wrote that "at the time a lot of developers besides myself were upset at how the free the games fund was going and said so." Games like Gridiron Thunder, which received $171,009 on Kickstarter thanks to a handful of suspicious backers, and the Ouya-suspended Elementary, My Dear Holmes were the center of attention for the funding program's detractors. Ouya's response to the criticism at the time was to assert that the the Free the Games Fund would not be changed, prior to being overhauled a week later. Addressing that decision, among other decisive missteps during a recent talk at the XOXO Festival in Portland, Oregon, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman said the company "did not think about all the different ways people could take advantage of that kind of program," She later added that the Ouya team "didn't have enough rules around the program and people took advantage of it out the gate. So having the best intentions isn't always best. But you have to be quick to hear the feedback no matter how painful it is and iterate and change as you go." As for Houlden's decision to bring Rose and Time back to the Ouya store, she wrote that "The Free the Games Fund was changed, none of the scam games received a single cent of the fund, the company admitted its mistakes, and was asking for yet more feedback to further improve things," concluding that she is "confident at this point that I can no longer justify keeping the game off the console."
Ouya overhauls Free the Games Fund
Responding to the ongoing controversy surrounding Ouya's Free the Games Fund, CEO Julie Uhrman issued a statement and video discussing changes coming to the program. For starters, instead of the $50,000 funding minimum required of project creators to be eligible for the program, Uhrman said the requirement is now $10,000. Plus, for every $10,000 raised on Kickstarter by project creators, they will now need to have a minimum of 100 backers to maintain eligibility. "The program wasn't perfect, we're fixing it, and if it's still not perfect, tell us and we'll fix it again," Uhrman said. "But I think it's important to note that we're not going to pull this program. We think great games can be found by you, the gamer, who loves Ouya, who wants to see something special on it." As part of the changes coming to the program, Ouya won't demand a guaranteed six months of exclusivity for project creators anymore. Rather, for every $10,000 in rewards issued by Ouya in matching crowdfunding efforts, developers will need to agree to one month of exclusivity. Uhrman noted one exception to the rule, as developers will be able to launch simultaneously on PC. Uhrman said Gridiron Thunder developer MogoTXT has notified Ouya that it is backing out of the Free the Games Fund, as it "raised enough money on Kickstarter to launch it on their own." MogoTXT earned $171,009 from just 183 backers in its campaign, helping ignite the controversy surrounding the program. Ouya recently removed another game from the program, Dungeons: The Eye of Draconus. To get a brief summary of the Free the Games Fund's short, yet eventful life, check out our video recap.
Developers react to Ouya's defense of Free the Games Fund
Yesterday, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman voiced her support for the company's Free the Games Fund, noting that nothing about the program would be altered. Since then, indie developers have expressed their displeasure over Uhrman's statements. Sophie Houlden, who launched Rose and Time on Ouya in July, announced that she will be pulling the game from the Ouya store. Houlden said that after reading Uhrman's response, "it became very apparent to me that the company does not support indie developers who need the support most, and that they are incapable of ever correcting their mistakes. I'm simply no longer comfortable supporting the company." Free the Games Fund was first announced in July with the intention of encouraging Ouya development by rewarding successful Kickstarter project creators with extra funding in exchange for at least six months of Ouya exclusivity. Two eligible games came under scrutiny as they met their funding goals in late August: Elementary, My Dear Holmes and Gridiron Thunder. While Elementary was recently suspended due to suspicions over Kickstarter accounts that backed the game, Gridiron Thunder was successfully funded, bringing in $171,009 from only 183 total backers. Houlden isn't the only developer backing away from the platform. Kairo developer Richard Perrin noted via Twitter that he "had an Ouya on my desk since launch. Nearly finished porting Kairo to it. Gonna pack that away until a time when they become credible again." In the comments of Uhrman's response to the growing concerns over the program, 100 Rogues Ouya developer Wes Paugh said that "the campaigns that aren't setting off red flags are failing tragically, and that is a real shame, because some of those ideas are ones gaming would greatly benefit from." Thomas Was Alone developer Mike Bithell also criticized Ouya's response in the post's comments, saying it "isn't an acceptance of criticism, or an explanation of how clearly dodgy as hell schemes are being supported by [Ouya] publicly," but that it "reads like a press release from a console company locked into a foolish policy and using aspirational language to shift the blame, weirdly, onto its critics."
Ouya CEO offering store credit to unsatisfied Kickstarters
Unsatisfied contributors to Ouya's Kickstarter campaign may request a $13.37 credit for the console's Discover store, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman revealed in an email to backers this week. Uhrman's email acknowledged late shipments, missing controllers and delayed responses from customer support as missteps during the console's launch. Uhrman offered the credit in an effort to "do more than tell you how much we appreciate you." Kickstarter backers should check their inbox for the message and click the email's included link to request the credit. The full email is available after the jump. [Thanks, Scott!]
Order and Chaos Online comes to Ouya
Order and Chaos Online, that scrappy little mobile World of Warcraft clone, is continuing to expand its presence in the gaming market. Its latest conquest? Ouya, the Android-based console that released in late June. Ouya Chief Executive Julie Uhrman welcomed the title to the Ouya family: "Ouya is excited to be working with Gameloft to bring the wildly popular Order and Chaos Online to the consoles world for the first time. This also marks our first MMO, expanding the gaming possibilities for all Ouya gamers." This isn't technically the first MMO for the Ouya, however. Vendetta Online premiered on the console several months ago. Order and Chaos Online is available for free in the Ouya Discovery store.
Ouya founder on unfulfilled Kickstarter orders: 'I am pissed'
The Ouya launched for the public today, and things at retail appear to be going pretty well – Amazon, at least, sold out early on. But Ouya founder Julie Uhrman is "pissed" because some Kickstarter backers haven't yet received their consoles, and she promised they would arrive before the retail version went live. Uhrman says she delivered the backers' consoles to her distribution partner in May, but some orders remain unfulfilled. "I am pissed," Uhrman writes in a Kickstarter update locked to backers only, seen by Games Industry. "Some of you have not yet received your Ouya, and to you, I apologize. I did not promise to ship to most of you before we hit store shelves. I promised to ship to all of you. I've been reading your comments, and we are working to solve this." Ouya Head of Operations Ken Stephens says backers should expect their Ouyas in 15 to 17 days, as they're shipped from Hong Kong. Joystiq Reviews Editor Richard Mitchell got his hands on an Ouya Kickstarter model in April, and he found it to be worth the price – noting that it costs $99. He's now playing with the retail model, and he says it's an improvement on the initial version.
Ouya secures $15 million in funding, Bing Gordon joins board
Ouya has picked up a new board member with some industry klout – no really, he's on Klout's board too – in the the form of former EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon. "What we really liked about Bing is that he doesn't get constrained by conventional thinking, and that's a lot about what we do at Ouya," CEO Julie Uhrman tells Joystiq. "And he also is a really big supporter of game creators, and that's been one of the key focuses of Ouya. It felt like a perfect match." Gordon will be helping the company seek out new games and promote the Ouya itself, she says. The company has also secured $15 million in new funding. "We want to be in this for the long haul," says Uhrman. "This money will allow us to continue to support game developers as well as meet the demand that we're seeing from retailers and really gamers all over the world." Ouya has seen higher than expected demand, she says – so high, apparently, that the company delayed the launch from June 4 to June 25 to manufacture more units – and this new funding will help "service that demand." The funding may also help Ouya expand beyond its initial launch territories, North America, Canada and the UK. Many regions have shown an interest in Ouya, she says. "We will be able to look at those regions and determine what makes sense for Ouya, and be there when we want to be there."
Ouya launch delayed to June 25, controller defect being fixed
The Ouya isn't going to make its planned June 4 launch. The diminutive Android console will now launch on June 25. Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman tells Joystiq that the decision was made in order to meet high demand at retail. "We've had incredibly positive reactions from our retail partners, and so in order to meet their greater than expected demand, we decided to shift the launch date by a couple of weeks – three weeks – which will allow us to create more units and, basically, have more units on store shelves in June." Uhrman also addressed one of Ouya's stickier issues, notably that the controller's buttons can get stuck underneath its faceplate. The problem has already been fixed, she says, and has been implemented in production. The solution: larger button holes. "I don't know what the exact millimeter is, but we've increased the size just a little bit, so now the buttons don't stick under it. We made that change very early so all the units are being produced with those larger button holes." The corrected controllers will ship alongside Ouya's retail launch units. We followed up with Ouya and were told that the new controllers are already being shipped to Kickstarter backers as well. When asked if those who already received a defective controller would get a replacement, a representative told us, "If backers have a problem with their controller, we will work with them to resolve the issue via customer service." We'll have more on the Ouya's upcoming launch later today.
Ouya working on external game storage, simpler installs for June 4 launch
Those early Kickstarter units may have some issues, but Ouya promises that come time to officially launch the console on June 4, that won't be the case. External storage for games, an easier game installation process, controller support for video players, more metrics for developers and support for different payment options are a few of the issues Ouya will be focusing on leading up to launch, founder and CEO of Ouya Julie Uhrman said on the Ouya blog."We will continue to obsess over quality and performance. For example, we are considering adding additional magnets to the controllers so that the faceplates are more secure – no more falling off during shipments!" Ouya is also working on improving responsiveness of software and will continue to focus on "discovery and curation" as more games are submitted to Ouya.The founding backer edition of Ouya launched on March 28, though many found – including our pals over at Engadget – that the console seemed like more of a beta release than a final product. Ouya will ship its retail version on June 4 for $99.%Gallery-184327%
Ouya: Joystiq goes hands-on
For being such a little thing, the Ouya is surprisingly heavy. The Kickstarter unit I tested was etched with the names of $10,000 backers, Minecraft creator Notch at the top of the list. Ouya's development kit (the ODK) is in the hands of 8,000 developers, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman told me. "New games are getting loaded every single day, all different types of genres."The hardware is finalized, she said, having been improved over the original development kits based on developer suggestions. With units now shipping to Kickstarter backers, the next two months will be spent improving the software prior to the official public launch in June. "Like every other sort of typical software platform, it's always going to continue to evolve, and we'll add more features and functionality."%Gallery-184315%
Ouya names Roy Bahat chairman of the board, hires leadership staff
Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman announced Roy Bahat as chairman of the board Friday. Bahat served as president of IGN Entertainment for five years before joining Ouya.Uhrman also revealed that Steve Chamberlin will lead Ouya's engineering division while Raffi Bagdasarian is in charge of the software side of operations, including services for developers and user experience. Chamberlin previously was Senior Development Director for Trion Worlds, developers of Rift. Bagdasarian spent over five years working with Sony on its Crackle streaming service.Uhrman added that "over a thousand" game developers have been in contact with Ouya since its Kickstarter campaign ended in August, and that more than 50 distributors have applied to carry the system when it launches.
Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close
"We've been blown away the whole time," Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman said this afternoon, just 10 hours ahead of her company's Kickstarter project reaching its end. It's an understandable reaction considering the Android-based open-source console aimed to gather just $950K in total – the project lept over $1 million in its first eight hours, and crested over $8 million this afternoon. The final number at time of publishing? $8,580,682 (from 63,277 backers).Uhrman believes the reaction goes beyond what her company's offering, and that the Ouya's success is more than just a measure of interest in the console. "People are ready for something new, and Ouya is that thing," she claimed.Since we first heard about Ouya, it's gotten a whole mess of new features and support. Both Namco and Square Enix are working with the console, as are a variety of multimedia applications (iHeartRadio, XBMC, OnLive), not to mention indies. "We never expected to do this well and be this well-received," Uhrman added. "It's just truly amazing that it's resonated so well with gamers and developers."Uhrman said that, beyond the Kickstarter backers getting their consoles first, Ouya will be "taking pre-orders" via web for consoles, and those will ship at some point in April 2013. Ouya backers can expect their consoles to arrive at some point in March 2013, and Ouya promises we'll hear more before ... yup, 2013.%Gallery-161911%
OUYA's Kickstarter funding is complete: over $8.59 million raised, starts shipping in March
It's a wrap! Suffice it to say, it's a been a relatively short, yet astoundingly fruitful -- and initially record-breaking -- funding run for OUYA, the hackable, Android-based gaming console. With just 29 days to work with since being announced, the Yves Behar-designed system has raked in over $8.58 million thanks to just under 63,300 backers on Kickstarter as of its official 1AM ET funding deadline today (You'll find the final tally below). Those who opted for developer editions will be able to start tinkering with their own units around December, while the majority of backers should receive the console as early as March 2013. Missed the Kickstarter bandwagon? Don't fret, because OUYA plans to take pre-orders from the general public over the web soon, expecting those units to arrive at doorsteps near April. The numbers are only part of the picture, of course. If you'll recall, OUYA swiftly acquired a slew of partnerships from companies like OnLive, Square Enix, XBMC, Vevo, and Robotoki -- and as if that wasn't enough, just yesterday Namco Bandai and Plex officially joined the content-providing party as well. What's more, we now know that each console will support up to four of those touchpad-equipped controllers for local multiplayer action. Even with all that, this story is far from over, as Joystiq points out that Julie Uhrman and company "promise" to have more updates before its official launch. Naturally, it still remains to be seen how OUYA's (literally) tiny, Tegra 3-powered footprint will fare against the big three in gaming, but we're cautiously optimistic. So, while the final, mass-produced product is still months away, in the meantime you'll find a recap of all the highlights from OUYA in the nifty saga module below. You can also hit up our friends at Joystiq here for extra insight from the company about its successes so far. Update (1:15AM): Despite the timer hitting zero, it appears that pledges are still being accepted past the 1AM deadline -- better be quick! We'll be sure to update the numbers again as soon pledging is officially halted. Update 2 (7:30AM): It took a bit of time, but OUYA's Kickstarter is officially not accepting any more pledges. The final numbers? 63,416 backers helped to raise a final sum of $8,596,475.
Ouya's first exclusive game: a prequel to Robert Bowling's 'Human Element'
Of the many things we've heard about Ouya, we've yet to hear any developers straight up announce games for the Android-based, $99 console. Robert Bowling's Robotoki just became the first studio to do so, taking to Ouya's Kickstarter page to announce a prequel to his planned 2015 game, Human Element."Robotoki is the first studio to commit to building a game exclusively for Ouya: an episodic prequel that will set the stage for this eventual release of Human Element in 2015," Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman explains in the update. Human Element is a survival game set in – what else? – the zombie apocalypse. It's the first game from Robert Bowling's Robotoki studio, and the first project Bowling's worked on since exiting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward earlier this year. It's unclear how this prequel will differ from the final game in terms of gameplay, but then we hardly know anything about Human Element just yet.Beyond the game announcement, Bowling shows his commitment to Ouya financially as well, saying in a video on the Kickstarter page that he personally donated $10,000 to the project. Which we guess sorta means that Activision inadvertently donated $10,000 to the project. Which is kinda weird.
Amazon Kindle alum overseeing Ouya production, hiring
Muffi Ghadiali, an alumni of Amazon's internal Lab126 (the team responsible for developing Amazon's Kindle line of products), has been keeping an eye on every aspect of Ouya's production according to an update to the project's obscenely successful Kickstarter campaign."My job at OUYA is to ensure that we meet the needs of gamers and developers," Ghadiali said in a missive to supporters in the update. He cites the Ouya's inexpensive build design and his own personal experience bringing products to market as reasons that "this can be done."Ghadiali also updated on the device's forthcoming SDK, saying that the company wants it available as quickly as possible, and that it'll be "pretty simple to start, using the existing Android SDK and adding the ability to promote your game, and to charge OUYA customers." In one last note for supporters concerned about wireless connections, Ghadiali added: "And we heard your feedback: yes, yes, we'll add an Ethernet jack. We have a lot of consoles to make, so I wouldn't expect too many more changes to the spec."Ouya's Julie Uhrman concluded the update by saying "Muffi is also hiring some engineers to join our team. So if you know the Android OS well, and want to help us make OUYA, hit us up." No specific contact information was given, though she did say that "you can figure out a way to get in touch with him." Our professional suggestion: carrier pigeons.
