Ouya's Kickstarter Closes with Over $8 Million in Funding

It's hard to believe we've only been talking about the Ouya console for a few weeks. Still, hard as it may be to believe, the Ouya Kickstarter only went live on July 10. The console made headlines when news of the creator's ambitious plans to upend console gaming spread. Within a few hours, the project reached its goal of $950,000 in funding. Withing a few days, the project had attracted millions of dollars in crowd-sourced funding.

Today, the Ouya Kickstarter project comes to a close. The total amount raised? A whopping $8,596,475. This astronomical sum comes from 63,416 individuals, each of whom put their own cash into the project. "We did it gang!" the company tweeted last night, before inviting people to continue following the Ouya adventure on Ouya.tv.

The Ouya project has gone from strength to strength since the Kickstarter page launched. When Ouya reached its funding, the company started attracting attention from other companies in the industry. Soon there was news of an OnLive partnership that would see the streaming gaming service pre-installed on Ouya units. Then, not too long ago, the OUYA Kickstarter page reported that the company behind the console was working with XBMC to bring the open source media player and entertainment hub to the Android-based console. This is in addition to partnerships with TuneIn Radio, iHeartRadio, and VEVO.

While Ouya's Kickstarter has attracted a boatload of cash, it didn't quite make enough to take the title of the most-funded project in Kickstarter history. Back in April, Kickstarter announced that the crown belonged to Pebble, a customizable watch that raised over $10 million in the space of about six days. Still, Ouya does hold the title of the most funded project in its category (Games), which is nothing to sniff at.

The $99 Ouya features a quad-core Tegra 3 SoC, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal flash storage, 802.11 b/g/n connectivity, Bluetooth LE 4.0, one USB 2.0 port, and an HDMI output port with support up to 1080p on an HDTV. Android 4.0 completes the package along with a wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button) and a touchpad. The goal of the Ouya is to open up console gaming and to encourage developers to develop for the television again. Anyone that contributed more than $99 to the Kickstarter project will get a free Ouya when the console launches.

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