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Welcome to Wednesday. The week before Christmas is already half over, and to celebrate the impending holiday, I have a Black Friday-size, gargantuan list for you all (much, much larger than Monday's). We have stuff from Square Enix, Noodlecake, OUYA, and a whole bunch more. If you're not aware, Nvidia is running a massive sale on both Android and GeForce NOW games, which you can check out here. Also, while we're on the topic of Noodlecake, be sure to look at the new Humble Bundle — we're giving away 10 codes, too.
OUYA may have been a bust as an Android-powered game console, but after being sold to Razer and focusing on software, it has cultivated an impressive specialization for local multiplayer. The publisher's latest release for Android TV is Gurgamoth, a 4-player 2D brawler that landed on Steam back in February. It's available on the Play Store now for five bucks with no in-app purchases.
It's not often we see a new game exclusive to the Android TV platform. Mercenary Kings is a 2D action game funded in 2014 on Kickstarter and originally released for Windows. The game was later ported to the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita, and eventually released on Steam. Now Mercenary Kings has made its way over to Android TV.
The dream of OUYA was not to be. It turns out that overturning a decades-old industry by disrupting it with mobile hardware and open-source software is a tough row to hoe, and adding on a semi-exclusive game market (you know, that thing that consoles do that's already universally hated) wasn't the best opening move. So OUYA floundered in the maturing set-top box market until Razer snapped it up in the hopes of bolstering its own Forge TV, which had been on the market for months and was already known as the worst option in an extremely limited field.
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The saga of OUYA is a cautionary tale of how hard it is to build a new gaming platform. After an initial crowdfunding success, OUYA had trouble attracting developers and keeping gamers interested. The company was gobbled up by gaming giant Razer earlier this year, and now the OUYA store is back as Cortex for the Android TV-powered Forge TV.
Razer's Ouya Acquisition Is Now Official, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman Leaves The Company [Update: Details]
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After a long period of stagnation, Ouya was acquired by gaming company Razer last month. At least that's what the business management firm Mesa Global said on its website. Now that transaction is official according to the Razer Twitter account and the snazzy graphic above. Details of the acquisition aren't available, but we do know that Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman isn't joining Razer.
There hasn't been much news out of OUYA for the last year or so, and Razer's first effort at mobile hardware, the Android TV-powered Forge TV, hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire either. Would combining forces make either of these products better? Probably not. But according to a recent post on TechCrunch, at least someone thinks it might be a good idea.
A memo from OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman leaked to Fortune says the company has run out of cash and is now frantically seeking a buyer. The memo sent to investors and advisers earlier this month asks for potential buyers to express interest before the end of April, which is a tight timetable insisted upon by OUYA's creditors. This may be the end of the line for one of Kickstarter's early success stories.
The Ouya raised $8.6 million on Kickstarter, and to its credit, the promised $99 Android-powered game console was delivered and works as described. The problem is that it just wasn't very good in the grand scheme of things. The outlook on Ouya hasn't been particularly positive, but maybe that's about to change. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese retail giant Alibaba has swooped in with a $10 million investment
The Ouya has not taken the gaming world by storm as its supporters hoped, but it's still ticking along. In the latest update, users can look forward to more community content, deals on game bundles, and a few odds and ends for developers.
The low-cost Ouya game console got a big start a few years back when it raised more than $8 million on Kickstarter. When the console actually came out in mid-2013, the results were less than impressive. Ouya has gone through a number of changes since then, but now Recode is reporting that it has entered acquisition talks with a number of companies in the US and China.
If you've been on the Internet for the last month, you've probably heard of LeVar Burton's Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign, which appealed directly to parents to bring the beloved reading-focused kid's program to the web. The campaign has just under six hours left, and at $5.1 million pledged, Burton & co. now have the resources available to meet their goal of bringing the upcoming experience to Android, as well as game consoles and set-top boxes.
The Mad Catz M.O.J.O. didn't exactly get a glowing review from us back in February, but bless its little heart, it's still trying. The latest official firmware update adds some significant features to the device, making its $199 retail price a little more palatable. The MOJO is now the first device to support OUYA Everywhere, which means that it gets access to the games on the proprietary OUYA store in addition to the built-in Google Play Store.
If you could pay a flat fee for all-you-can-eat games on Android, would you? OUYA is hoping that the answer is yes, because the creators of the prototypical Android micro-console are now offering just such a service. OUYA owners can now purchase the .99 OUYA All-Access Pass from the website, which includes free access to "over 800" paid games and in-app purchases. OUYA claims this is an "over $2000 value," though a full list of the included apps and IAPs is not published.
Ouya Releases Chupacabra System Update With Redesigned Play Screen, Audio Passthrough For XBMC, And More
Ouya has released its Chupacabra system update.
The newest update for the Ouya game console has been made available, and it's a big one. This time the cryptozoological mascot is the infamous goat-sucker itself, the Chupacabra. It's more than a name, though. This is a notable update that addresses some of the concerns users have had about the device since launch.
The Ouya hasn't lived up to expectations, but the console is getting really affordable if you're looking for something quick and easy for living room gaming. Today's Amazon gold box deal includes the Ouya for $69.99 ($30 off retail) plus $25 in game credit. It's kind of like getting an Ouya for $45, all things considered.
The folks behind Ouya have been making some changes as of late. There was a more pricey version of the console, then the Ouya Everywhere initiative happened. Now the company has announced it will no longer require all games to have a free demo attached. Be prepared for regular paid content to start popping up in the Ouya store.
Amazon has been expanding into just about every possible media sales segment in the last few years, with one notable exception: console-style video games. If a filing with the Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (read: the Brazilian version of the FCC) can be believed, Amazon is looking to close that gap in its product lineup. A full game controller, with media controls and Android-style navigation buttons, was spotted there by Zatz Not Funny.