Ouya, the $99 Android games console, has finished its funding run on Kickstarter, and raised a phenomenal $8,596,178 (£5,483,862).
The console has 63,413 backers. It smashed its target of $950,000 by a whopping 900 per cent.
It reached its target just eight hours after appearing on the crowd sourced funding site.
Despite the amount of interest it garnered, the $99 hackable console has had plenty of skeptics as well. Critics doubt it will be able to launch by its set date of March 2013.
In an effort to quell the skepticism, Ouya brought onboard Muffi Ghadiali, who worked on the Amazon Kindle, and announced games developers like Square Enix and Namco Bandai were coming along for the ride.
Independent developers were also clamouring for some of the Ouya action. Cliffhanger productions will make Shadowrun Online for the console (providing the game reaches its funding goal, that is). And Rapture Games Studios will make Gunblitz an Ouya launch title.
Ouya specs
So what about the hardware itself? Well the console will have a Tegra 3 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, an HDMI connection that supports 1080p HD, and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
Connections-wise, it'll have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, and USB 2.0. A wireless controller will come as standard.
It's expected to go on sale in March of next year, all being well. And at $99, it'll undercut all the major console by quite some way. But with online gaming havens OnLive and Gaikai (recently bought by Sony) gathering strength, some would argue the future lies not in hackable hardware, but in the cloud.
We'll have to wait and see.
Via The Verge
