Will Ouya be Google TV by the backdoor?

The buzz today is about million dollar Kickstarter pitches from the world of gaming. There's the Penny Arcade plan to do without ads. This may or may not be successful. What will be successful, at least within Kickstarter, is a bold attempt to raise $1,000,000 to produce a new type of gaming console.

In fact, Ouya has raised nearly $3,000,000, is selling out - and has three weeks left to raise funds.



I'm a backer. I want that Founders Badge. I want that extra controller - after all, the Kickstarter might be the only time ever to get a Ouya and the controllers. It could succeed with crowd funding but then flop commercially.

Mind you - Ouya could be a huge commerical success. Free games? Cheap games? That's bound to be attractive to many people.

If Ouya does succeed and succeeds on a scale then, for the first time ever, Google has an Android device hooked up to the TV sets of many households.

Google very much wants Android devices hooked into TV sets. Android 4.0 was the first generation of the keyboard-free OS to be designed for all sorts of devices; smartphones, tablets and even connected TVs.

Google TV has yet to be a success. It might still be successful but it needs to find content. Google has done deals with content producers like Sony and this is a start but Google TV needs TV content. TV content is controlled.

The same problems will not haunt Ouya. Ouya will enter a market where developers create many games and often offer them for free.

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