News

Ouya closes $15 million round, pushes back US retail launch until 25 June

Cites 'higher than expected demand'

Ouya closes $15 million round, pushes back US retail launch until 25 June
As rival GameStick is finding out, completing a Kickstarter campaign is only the beginning of running a success business.

Unconsole outfit Ouya raised $8.5 million from the crowdsourcing site back in July 2012, and some backers have received their units, but not all.

Throw into the mix a US retail launch, and the company has been looking for additional funding.

That's why it's just closed a $15 million round.

It was lead by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and other backers included Mayfield Fund, Nvidia, Shasta Ventures and Occam partners.

As part of the deal KPC&B's Bing Gordon, who was previously CCO at EA, now sits on Ouya's board.

Stretched goals

In terms of the company's release schedule for the $99 Android-powered unconsole, it has retail support from the likes of GameStop, Best Buy and Amazon.

"The demand we're seeing from gamers and our retailers is beyond our expectations, so, to meet all this demand, we are shifting our launch date by three weeks to give us time to make more Ouyas," it explains on its blog.

Hence the launch date has been pushed back from 4 June to 25 June.

Kickstarter backers and early pre-orders should be delivered before the end of May, however.

[source: Ouya]
Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.