Ouya raised $8.6M on Kickstarter for a $99 Android console — and it was unplayable

Ouya, a $99 Android-based game console, raised $8.6 million on Kickstarter in 2012 — one of the platform's most successful campaigns at the time. The promise was a cheap, hackable, open console that would bring Android gaming to the TV, with every game offering a free trial.

But the product that shipped in June 2013 was a disaster. The controller was laggy and poorly built. The game library was tiny, with few titles designed for TV play. The 'free trial' model meant most games were demos, not full experiences. The console was underpowered, and the hackability that was promised was limited in practice.

Ouya's sales were disappointing, and the company struggled to attract developers. In 2015, Ouya's assets were sold to Razer, which shut down the Ouya store and absorbed the technology. The case illustrated the danger of crowdfunding a hardware product on a promise: the Kickstarter campaign sold a vision, but the product that shipped was a different, inferior thing.

Raised $8.6M on Kickstarter for a hackable console, but shipped a laggy, underpowered device with a tiny library; sold to Razer for parts.

The controller was laggy and poorly built, making games unplayable.

The game library was tiny, with few titles designed for TV play.

The 'free trial' model meant most games were demos, not full experiences.

The console was underpowered, and the promised hackability was limited.

A crowdfunding campaign sells a vision; the product must deliver it. When the gap between pitch and product is that wide, the backers become the obituary.

Ouya's assets were sold to Razer in 2015. The Ouya store was shut down. The case is cited as a cautionary tale about crowdfunding hardware and the difficulty of building a gaming platform without a game library.