Ouya, the maker of a self-titled Kickstarter-funded Android games console, is reportedly looking for a buyer in China.
Launched last year from $8 million of Kickstarter funding, Ouya provided an affordable living room games console that ran on Google’s Android OS and played games predominantly designed for smartphones and tablets. However, after an initial spurt of success the console’s fortunes have dropped considerably.
A new report from Recode suggests that the company is now actively seeking out investment from China. Indeed, Ouya is said to be in “preliminary acquisition talks with multiple big players in China,” as well as a couple of interested parties in the US.
It seems that a buy-out is more likely than Ouya managing to source more investment at this point in time.
Among the interested parties are said to be Xiaomi, one of China’s biggest smartphone makers and a company that’s often referred to as China’s Apple. Interestingly, Ouya has already partnered with Xiaomi to put Ouya software into the company’s set-top boxes and smart TV sets.
Chinese online services company Tencent is also said to be interested.
China’s interest in the console maker follows the end of a long-standing ban on games consoles in the country. Evidently, China’s biggest tech companies are figuring out a way to address this new local market of potential gamers.
According to the report, any acquisition would likely be centred around Ouya’s staff rather than the Ouya console itself, which is understandable given the lack of ongoing success and technological limitations of the product.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
