Depending on who you talk to, the Android-based OUYA is either the greatest thing ever or a huge disappointment. However, OUYA Inc. CEO Julie Uhrman believes it’s only a matter of time before developers start millions of dollars in revenue. In fact, as early as the end of 2013.
Speaking to The Verge, Uhrman countered criticisms against the underwhelming sales of the device stating that 27 percent of all OUYA users have purchased a game, with 13 of the top 20 games having 8 percent of players willing to pay. “I think there are a lot of social and mobile app developers that would kill for an 8 percent attach rate on a platform that’s 30 days old.
“These numbers will grow as more gamers pick up consoles, and as we attract more developers, and I believe that by the end of the year, we’ll see a few developers telling us they’ve made more than a million dollars on Ouya.
Addressing criticisms from those who have seen meagre returns on developing games for the OUYA, Uhrman also stated that, “To say developers can’t make money on Ouya – I take offense to that. I’m sure the creators of TowerFall and Hidden in Plain Sight would take offense to that. The console has only been out for a month, and developers have only had access to the hardware for about 6 months. We really like what we see so far, and so do developers and gamers.”
“Five days after launch, reviews came out and people were writing us off. If every company that got mixed results right out of the gate would have given up, we wouldn’t have an iPhone, we wouldn’t have an iPod.”