Ouya CEO predicts some devs to make more than $1 million by end of 2013

Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman says game sales are "better than we expected" and predicts that by the end of the year, a few developers will have made a million dollars.

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Ouya game sales are said to be sluggish, but CEO Julie Uhrman seems unconcerned. According to her, not only are the game sales "better than we expected," but she predicts that a few developers will have made a million bucks by the end of this year.

The reports of low sales were largely anecdotal, making it difficult to paint a complete picture. In an interview with The Verge, she didn't confirm or deny the assessment formed by those figures, but provided a few of her own. In the first month, 27% of Ouya users have paid for a game. Most of the top-grossing games have had an 8% conversion rate for paid versions. Those numbers might not sound positive, but Uhrman suggests they're are actually great for a console built around the free-to-play model.

"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," Uhrman said. "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."

Even the most successful games have a long way to go to reach that figure, though. The most successful game on Ouya is Towerfall, which has reportedly made $21,000 so far. It was recently announced for PC as well, though the port will take a few months. Hidden in Plain Sight is another purported success story, having made just over $4,000 so far.

Uhrman said it's too soon for "broad sweeping statements about how a platform is going to perform," and that the numbers will still grow. "Five days after launch, reviews came out and people were writing us off," she said. "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."

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  • reply
    July 26, 2013 7:24 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Ouya CEO predicts some devs to make more than $1 million by end of 2013.

    Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman says game sales are "better than we expected" and predicts that by the end of the year, a few developers will have made a million dollars.

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 7:28 AM

      Maybe only Towerfall, which they're promoting heavily (maybe in an attempt to create a blockbuster). Seriously last time I checked like the first 6 categories or so in their game browser have Towerfall right there in the first few items.

      I can see it working out in the long run, but right now they're hard-pressed to show numbers to justify the platform and they're just not there (and I say this as someone who's making an OUYA game just for fun!)

      http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/196691/the_ouya_experience_what_game_.php

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 7:38 AM

      so is this thing DOA or will it find usefulness somewhere along the way? seems like even the people who have it and don't hate it still aren't very excited about it.

      • reply
        July 26, 2013 4:26 PM

        The most promising thing I've heard is as a sort of boxee box replacement.

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 1:17 PM

      A new way to "entice" people to develop for your failing console? You might be able to make 1 mil by the end of the year!

      and if not, oh well.

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      July 26, 2013 2:16 PM

      Is their news suppose to coupple with the fact that only 27% of users buy games?

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 3:45 PM

      Uh, how is an 8% conversion rate not good? I can think of several industries where an 8% conversion rate would be absolutely amazing, F2P games being one of them.

      Not that I think the Ouya is amazing - it needs a way larger install base for this to be sustainable long-term - just that the world seems pretty biased against it if they're using this as a justification.

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 3:50 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 4:34 PM

      How, they don't even have a thousand ouya owners?

      • reply
        July 26, 2013 4:48 PM

        I think her predictions are a little optimistic.

        Even their must succesful game, Towerfall, has only made $21,000. Assuming that every following month results in the same number of sales as their first (which is hardly ever the case - first month sales make up the lions share of lifetime sales with most games) they'll still fall nearly $900,000 short of bringing in a million by the new year.

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