Ouya is Dead: Here's When the Servers Are Shutting Down

Game Rant

By Dalton Cooper

Published May 23, 2019

Razer announces the death of the Ouya micro console, revealing that all of its online services, including its digital marketplace, will be shut down next month.

Raising nearly $9 million on Kickstarter and becoming one of the site's most successful video game projects ever, there once was quite a bit of optimism for the Ouya. The strange little console ultimately launched to lackluster reviews, with the poor review scores for the Ouya and a general lack of public interest sealing its fate. Production on Ouya consoles ceased in 2015, and while its digital storefront and online services have remained active since then, the servers are shutting down soon.

It's been announced that support for Ouya's online services will be shutting down on June 25. At this point, Ouya owners will no longer be able to download games through the digital marketplace, and the online functionality for all Ouya titles will no longer work. There will be many apps for the console that will simply cease to function once the servers permanently go offline in June 25.

There may be a few people who will be sad to see the Ouya die, but there will be many more who will be surprised its online services were still operating at all. As previously mentioned, the Ouya launched to a poor reception and was considered a financial failure, leading to its discontinuation in 2015. Razer ended up buying the rights to Ouya, keeping the console and its digital marketplace alive for four additional years.

ouya is dead: here's when the servers are shutting down

Despite this, it doesn't seem as though public interest in Ouya increased at all after the Razer buyout. With no new consoles being sold, Razer could only really focus on those who already bought the console. This meant that software support for the Ouya was largely dead, with no significant releases since 2016.

There once was a time when the Ouya seemed to have a chance at being relevant. It had an exclusive game in TowerFall that earned quite a bit of critical acclaim, and former Infinity Ward dev Robert Bowling had also planned on releasing the prequel to his Human Element game as an exclusive on the system. Unfortunately for Ouya, TowerFall would later be ported to other platforms, and the Human Element project was ultimately canceled.

Anyone interested in playing the Ouya's games will need to do so by June 25.