Ouya – the little game console that could – is almost upon us. Those who helped make it the most successful gaming Kickstarter ever only have one more month before its delivered to them. What about those who didn’t preorder one last year though? They’ll have to wait a bit longer.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman said that the Ouya would be hitting retail in June of this year. The company has struck deals with various retailers, like Target, Amazon, GameStop and Best Buy, to carry the mini-console. Before that though, the company will be shipping out Kickstarter backer units in March and early preorders in April.
GameStop and Amazon already have preorder pages up for the Ouya with the console retailing for $99.99. The base console comes with one console and a controller. Extra controllers will retail for $49.99 each.
As for game support, Uhrman told the WSJ that about 200 titles are being prepared for Ouya at the moment. The titles range from indie efforts to games from big name studios. An example of each would be Minecraft from Mojang and Final Fantasy III from Square Enix.
Ouya has the games and right price, but can it compete with the new consoles coming from Sony and Microsoft this year? Uhrman says that it’s not their intention to compete with the other consoles, but instead “carve out own niche.”
Retailers seem to have faith in Ouya, and it’s Kickstarter campaign still impresses. It still remains to be seen, however, how consumers will respond once it officially launches. I find it hard to imagine people playing sloppy controller-based ports of smartphone titles on their televisions, but wholly original content may just Ouya the kickstart it needs to succeed where others have failed.