The Ouya has officially launched today, being sold to the public at the retail price of $99.99.
According to CNET, the Android-based console is already unavailable in some online stores. Both Amazon and GameStop are sold out of the Ouya, while Best Buy and Target still have the console in stock.
Last year, Ouya founder Julie Uhrman and her team turned to Kickstarter to fund the development of the Ouya. The Ouya Kickstarter raised $8.5 million, and is recognized as the second-highest Kickstarter in history.
Originally, the Ouya was scheduled for a June 4 release; according to Uhrman, the Ouya was pushed back to June 25 in order to meet the high demand at retail stores. But parallel to retail demand, the Ouya already faces competition from heavyweight consoles such as the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4.
According to Ouya’s website, games coming to the Ouya are free to try, and has partnerships with Twitch.tv, Crunchyroll, iheartradio, etc., in order to recreate the television experience. The Ouya comes with one controller, with additional ones costing $49.99 apiece.
Update: Uhrman has issued a statement on Kickstarter today, apologizing to backers have who have not yet recieved their consoles. Below is a statement from Uhrman:
Backers,
I am pissed. Some of you have not yet received your OUYA — and, to you, I apologize. I did not promise to ship to *most* of you before we hit store shelves. I promised to ship to *all* of you. I’ve been reading your comments, and we are working to solve this.
Here is what I know:
We delivered your OUYAs to our partner in May, and since then they have been in their custody. We paid for shipping, yet the deliveries remain incomplete. We know everyone is getting their OUYA, but it is taking longer than we expected.
We are working hard to get you answers, and more importantly, to fix this. On our end, we have tripled our customer service team so we can respond as quickly as possible to your questions (though the answer may still be that it’s in transit). We are working with our partners to resolve any administrative issues related to undelivered boxes (errors in shipping addresses, customs holds, etc.). I’m told that despite our best efforts, it may take another two weeks or more for some of these units to arrive.
We will resolve this as quickly as possible. I’ve had my team working all evening to provide me with the current state of affairs and what we are doing to make it right. Ken, our Special Ops lead, can give you more detail.
–Julie
Ouya’s Head of Operations Ken Stephens detailed into Uhrman’s statement:
Hi Everyone,
My name is Ken Stephens, and I am the Head of Operations at OUYA.
This post is personally addressed to our early backers who have not yet received their OUYAs.
As we hit store shelves tomorrow, it is very important that I try my best to explain why your units are behind schedule from our commitment and when we anticipate delivery.
As you may be aware, we manufacture OUYA in mainland China with our fulfillment partner in Hong Kong who is responsible for the individual shipments to you all.
Over the past few months, we encountered and conquered many challenges spanning both hardware and software in order to bring the best product we could to market. We have tried to make sure that the challenges we faced did not impact our early supporters, but unfortunately we came up short.
On average, shipment processing–from fulfillment center to product delivery–runs 20 days, end to end. It takes 3 to 5 days to pick, pack and ship the units out — and then 15 to 17 days of transit time. Therefore, if you received your tracking number with your shipping confirmation email, your unit is on its way.
I know that many of you are frustrated with the DHL tracking system. While we are working hard to get this issue rectified, I am sorry to say this is still causing problems. When you receive a tracking number, you expect it to work immediately, but sometimes these tracking numbers don’t do that. The reason for this is that when the product leaves Hong Kong, the tracking process does not initiate until it arrives for the first scan at your country’s local depot. As a result, you could have a period of up to 10 days within which the product appears in limbo. This, we all agree, is very frustrating.
Additionally, we have seen a lot of cases where the unit will be delivered to your door without the product ever getting an arrival scan. This also unfortunately happens when dealing with the local postal systems.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of those who haven’t yet received OUYA are international backers. It just takes a lot longer to ship to some countries.
All of these units HAVE left Hong Kong, and you have received your tracking email.
So, based on the date of your shipping-confirmation email, your OUYA will arrive within 15 to 17 days from that date.
Please accept my personal apology for not yet delivering on our promise.
Sincerely,
Ken
