Ouya

The Ouya was a small Android based game console that showed up in the early 2010s with a lot of hype behind it. It started life as a Kickstarter project in 2012, and it became one of the biggest crowdfunding stories of its time, pulling in millions of dollars from backers who loved the idea of a cheap, open gaming box. The console launched to the public in 2013.

The pitch was pretty appealing. The Ouya was a tiny cube that sold for around 99 dollars, ran on Android, and came with its own controller. Every game was supposed to be free to try, and the whole platform was aimed at indie developers who wanted an easy, affordable way to get their games onto a TV. For a moment it really felt like the little console that could shake things up against the big players.

Unfortunately the Ouya never quite lived up to the excitement. The hardware was underpowered, the game library leaned heavily on smaller mobile style titles, and it struggled to compete once the novelty wore off. Sales fell short, the company behind it ran into trouble, and the platform was eventually wound down. Its online servers were finally shut off in 2019, which effectively ended support for good.

Even though it didn't last, the Ouya is still an interesting piece of gaming history. It was one of the first real attempts at an Android microconsole and a crowdfunded console, and a lot of the ideas it championed, like cheap hardware and a focus on indie games, kept showing up in the years that followed.