Ouya Kickstarter campaign ends with $8 million pledged

The $99 console Ouya has been making a lot of noise since this last month. Especially with some of the more recent news about the console getting a port of Final Fantasy III as a launch title. The console also had a limited edition model which could only be obtained during the last week of the Kickstarter campaign. The limited edition is no longer available as the Ouya Kickstarter campaign has now come to an end with an astonishing $8,596,475 pledged.

Ouya has also shared some more information about the console. While there are no proper details about things like what games the system will launch with, some of the things that have been shared are interesting, such as a statement from Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing, NAMCO BANDAI: “NAMCO BANDAI Games and OUYA are currently in active discussions to bring some of the world’s biggest gaming properties to the exciting new open gaming platform. NAMCO BANDAI brings with it a rich history of iconic gaming franchises, from classics like PAC-MAN and GALAGA, to seminal franchises like TEKKEN and Ridge Racer, and we’re excited to explore how we can work with OUYA to bring some great titles to the forthcoming console.”

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Ouya plans to kick things off with the release of Final Fantasy III as a launch title for the console. This will be the first time gamers outside of Japan can play Final Fantasy III on their TVs through a console.

A blog post on the Ouya Kickstarter page reads, “We’re promising to deliver Final Fantasy III like you’ve never seen it before - Hironobu Sakaguchi’s third installment in the role playing game franchise will be updated to exploit OUYA’s high-definition resolution in glorious graphic detail.” The game will also get a free demo for those new to the Final Fantasy series to see if they like the game.

Ouya made $8 million dollars on Kickstarter

This is after the news that the game streaming service OnLive will make its way to the Ouya console. OnLive’s general manager in the UK, Bruce Grove had confirmed the move in a statement, “When OnLive first heard about Ouya, we were excited to see console gaming becoming more available and open”.

“Like OUYA, we came to gaming with a new vision for making top-quality gaming accessible to more people, and we continue to look for ways to expand on that vision”, Grove continued, “OUYA is rethinking the console business, making waves by using standard technology to make gaming for your living room accessible, affordable and more innovative than ever. In OnLive’s case, we pioneered a groundbreaking, cloud-based system that instantly delivers games to any device on demand. We are pleased to announce that OnLive will be available on OUYA at launch, extending and building on our commitment to make the best games available to everyone, everywhere.”

The Ouya Kickstarter campaign started in July. The team working on the Ouya has a dream of changing how the current console market works, where console manufacturers have a tight leash over what games can and can’t be on their system. Julie Uhrman, founder of Ouya – who has had executive experience at IGN, Vivendi Universal, and GameFly – thinks it’s about time the console market finally learned something from platforms such as the iOS, about new business strategies. “It’s ironic. All the growth in gaming is moving to mobile platforms, [and] we’re seeing a lot of AAA developers leaving their console shops to go to mobile. Yet three out of every four dollars is still spent in the living room, a majority of gaming time is still spent on the TV, and if you survey any gamer they’ll tell you their No. 1 platform is the TV”, Uhrman said.