Ouya turning to Chinese companies to buy the business

2 Sep 2014

The Ouya console. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Ouya, the Android gaming console, is turning to major Chinese manufactures to offer its services to them by buying them out in the hope of expanding the company’s reach and production.

Sources known to Re/code have said that the company has found their progress in the gaming market not as forthcoming as initially hoped and now feel that with the financial backing and production of potential suitors including Xiaomi, they could make it financially viable.

The console launched last year uses the Google operating system which would allow players of some of the most popular free-to-play smartphone games to be brought to the TV but has struggled with a limited selection and poor up-take from developers looking to create Ouya versions.

However, while the talks are understood to be in its relatively early stages, the gaming company have reportedly not just limited their search for a suitor in China, but has also contacted US Giants Google and Amazon.

Despite its low sales and struggles to reach the lofty targets it had originally set, the company have shown signs that there remains a product worthy of investment.

Just recently, Xiaomi partnered with the company to release the gaming software with its own range of smart TVs and set-top boxes while also partnering with Mad Catz, the makers of gaming devices including the Rock Band drum kit, to put the Ouya software on these and similar devices.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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