And Kickstarter Does it Again

Yesterday Matt showed us all this new android based console that just hit Kickstarter. Yes, I am talking about a new home console system that would hook up directly to your television. It’s not coming from Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, but a group of entrepreneurial industry vets who want to change the industry.

It’s named the Ouya, a bit of a strange name, but then Nintendo broke all rules when it named their console the Wii, and it looks to be a game changer.

So what is this thing? It kind of came out of nowhere and suddenly exploded in popularity.How much attention has it gotten? To put things in perspective head over to their kickstarter page. They initially asked for $950,000. At the moment of this writing its hit $2.6 million, it’s been a little less than 48 hours…

Just for the sake of it, I threw the Ouya Kickstarter over to Kicktraq, a free prediction system which shows trends for any kickstarter program you put in. According to that, at the rate Ouya is going they will peak at $40 million in 28 days.

This is huge; a major shift that could change how Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo approach the market because pretty soon there is going to be a fourth console.

Why are people excited? Well for developers the SDK (Software Development Kit) is going to be free! That is a big seller right there. The Wii is locked down; nobody without express permission from Nintendo can make applications for it. The PS3 is in a similar boat. Any 3^rd party developer has to pay a large overhead to procure a special development system as well as software to even create a game. The Xbox, thanks to XNA is a relatively open market place that allows anyone to be a developer. However, we have heard some nightmare stories about the submittable process for Xbox.

So watch out, something evolutionary is coming and who knows what is going to happen next.