OUYA, $99 Gaming Console Hits Retailers, Sells Out on Amazon Quickly

Today is the official first day of general retail availability for the OUYA gaming console. The console, which is powered by Android, received its funding via Kickstarter, which made many people skeptical of its future, however, despite the skepticism  the company has managed to reach its milestone and hit retail stores.  If there’s one area where the OUYA team deserves credit it’s getting to this point.  OUYA’s founder Julie Uhrman and her team have done well by getting OUYA placed on the shelves of stores in the U.S, U.K, and Canada right next to the big name consoles such as Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox.

The OUYA console retails for just $99, and offers over 170 games.  Additionally, there are over 17,000 studios and game creators signed on to deliver content for the console, including Double Fine Productions. The console ships with one controller and an extra controller can be purchased for $49.99.

If you were hoping to get an order in for one today, you may be out of luck.  It appears that the OUYA is already out of stock on Amazon.com.

The high demand for the OUYA is a little surprising if you believe the early reviews of the product, which have not been so positive. Many reviews of the console said the user experience lacking, and many had hoped that the console would be more polished than its pre-release version and have its hardware edited.

One problem with the launch of the OUYA is that some early supporters of the OUYA project on Kickstarter who had the pre-release version did not receive the OUYA console before it became available to the general public, as was intended by the company.  If you’re wondering why those early supporters would get early access, the answer is that Kickstarter backers typically are provided with the product (or some other benefit/perk) before it is widely available.  In an effort to put out the fire, Uhrman shifted the blame to their shipping company, DHL, in her update this morning.