Ouya will begin shipping to Kickstarter backers on March 28th, CEO Julie Uhrman announced today on the console's Kickstarter blog.
According to Uhrman, shipping consoles to all of the Ouya's backers-there are 63,416 of them-will take time: Just because you pre-ordered a console doesn't mean you're going to get one any time soon. That said, they expect to have satisfied all their Kickstarter pre-orders in time for the console's retail launch this June.
Along with the console's release timetable, Uhrmann made a series of announcements about Ouya's software support, including an Ouya-exclusive from "Quantum Conundrum" developer Airtight Games and something new "Papo & Yo" developer Minority Media. Uhrman also announcedthe winners of the "Create" Game Jam, a 10-day Ouya development contest co-sponsored by Kill Screen:
- Create Grand Prize: Strange Happenings on Murder Island (Free Lives)
- Most Surprising: Television (Laboratory Games LLC)
- Four Bright Buttons and Two Sticks: Bombball (E McNeill)
- Most Immersive: Whispering Willows (Night Light Interactive)
- Pop Your Eyes Out: Pipnis (Santa Ragione)
- Best Couch with Friends Games: 2D Cube Zombie Platformer (Molinware)
- Best Game Created Using Unity Engine: Stikbold (Team Stikbold)
As if that wasn't enough, Uhrman revealed that former ThatGameCompany president Kellee Santiago will be Ouya's new "Developer's Best Friend," a.k.a. the senior executive in charge of developer support. Santiago left ThatGameCompany shortly after "Journey" was released last March. Since then she'd been working with Indie Fund, a firm that invests in independent games.
"OUYA gets it," writes Santiago. "This is the first console company that really understands how important it is to remove the barriers to development. By freeing up the development process, OUYA is opening up new doors in console gaming."
OUYA's done hard part, they built a brand new console. Now all they have to do is figure out to carve out an entirely new niche in the console gaming market.
