Ouya Hitting All Target Locations Later This Month

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

It's been almost four months since Ouya hit shelves. Now it looks like Ouya Inc is expanding availability ahead of the holiday shopping season. News broke on Thursday that Ouya will soon be available at all Target locations in the United States. Speaking to gaming site Polygon, Ouya CEO and founder Julie Uhrman said that the console will be available at all 1,800 Target branches later this month, which will mean the company can start doing national campaigns. Not only that, but the company is introducing demo kiosks in 2014, and launching the Ouya in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the Middle East at the end of October.

Ouya arrived at online and local store shelves across North America, Canada and the UK in June of this year. Participating retailers include Amazon (U.S., Canada, and the UK), Best Buy, GAME (UK), GameStop, and Target, and on OUYA.tv. The console is priced at $99.99 USD (additional controllers retail for $49.99) and is the result of a Kickstarter campaign launched in July, 2012. The project far exceeded its goal by the time the funding period ended a month later. In total, Ouya reeled in 63,416 backers pledging $8,596,474 USD (the goal was $950,000 USD).

The console was released to developers on December 28, 2012 followed by Kickstarter funders on March 28, 2013. Both were incomplete models, with the latter leading to early but negative hands-on reviews. The console currently holds a score of 62 on gadget reviews and rating site GDGT. It has a score of 6 on the critics scale (based on 19 reviews) and a score of 6.9 from a total of 23 user reviews.

Ouya is based on Nvidia's Tegra 3 SoC and packs a 1.7 GHz quad-core CPU, 8 GB of internal flash storage, 1 GB of DDR SDRAM, support for USB 2.0, HDMI, Micro USB, WiFi, Bluetooth LE 4.0, and Ethernet. It runs on Android Jelly Bean.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Jane McEntegart
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dredre9987
    Best set top box for xbmc currently
    Reply
  • teh_chem
    Oh good, other countries need paperweights too. *queue thumb-down*
    Reply
  • dredre9987
    @the_chem

    For gaming yeah pretty much useless unless you like android gaming, but as a box for XBMC this thing is awesome. And cheaper than building a HTPC for it....Beats out rasberrypi, ATV2, Gbox midnights and any other ready made XBMC box.
    Reply
  • _Pez_
    I got the Ouya, I love some good games there... but there's an issue with its storage space it fills up quickly with games and BUM ! you have to uninstall games in order to install other, that sucks, doesn't it ?
    Reply
  • Nuck Chorris
    I'm still waiting for these devices to become upgradable, just like PCs.
    Reply
  • Max_x2
    I was looking at the comments, and... How could this thing beat the Raspberry Pi, when it's twice the price? :/
    Reply
  • dalauder
    I'm not too happy with my Ouya. The interface, game library, and how you find new games is terrible.

    I don't understand why they don't make agreements with major companies to bring Hulu & Netflix to it. They also desperately need to get a Ouya version of NBA 2K14, Fifa 14, and some other sports games that already have Android versions.

    The more time that passes, the more I feel like the Ouya is a product of marketing B.S. and top executives running a get-rich-quick scheme. There are just so many easily fixable inexplicable shortfalls of the system.
    Reply
  • dalauder
    And why did they ever build their own controller if it costs $50? They should've just made a deal with Mad Catz, Logitech, or someone established to produce a bluetooth Xbox 360 controller clone and mouse combo for $30. A bluetooth mouse that paired with it would be SO MUCH BETTER than their touchpad.
    Reply
  • MEC-777
    As a pure gaming console, it has been somewhat of a flop IMO. However I think too many people are forgetting this is essentially Asus Transformer tablet guts in a tiny box. It's an android device and thus, you can install just about anything.

    It's easy to root and once you've done that, go nuts and side-load all the apps you want (including netflix).

    I'll probably pick one up just to tinker with and use as a dirt-cheap HTPC.

    For those complaining about internal storage space, just plug in a cheap USB stick. Problem solved.

    I think the Ouya should be recognized what for it's capable of doing/being rather than what it can do/is out of the box. ;)
    Reply