Ouya, the Android-based video game console, is in trouble. After failing to restructure its debt, a leaked email from Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman obtained by Fortune revealed the company is in dire need of a buyer if it hopes to keep moving forward.
Even with the company’s $10 million investment from Alibaba in February and $15 million in investments from one of its funding rounds two years ago, Ouya still needs to recover an unspecified amount of investor capital. In order to do so, Uhrman explained in the email that Ouya, the company’s Android microconsole that shares the company’s name, still holds value, even when compared to the competition.
“We believe we’ve built something real and valuable,” wrote Uhrman. “I continue to read the tweets and emails of our fans who play OUYA every day, and our catalog is now over 1,000 apps and 40,000 developers. We have the largest library of Android content for the TV (still more than Amazon) — hells ya!”
With this value, Ouya hopes to recover investor capital through its agreements with Xiaomi and Alibaba, which will see Ouya’s library make its way to Xiaomi and Alibaba boxes in China. Unfortunately, the report insinuated that Ouya tripped a debt covenant. In other words, Ouya reached the point of no return financially, forcing the company to quickly find a buyer.
In the email, Uhrman hopes that interested parties would step up by the end of April, which is just a couple of days away.
Ouya officially launched in 2012 on Kickstarter, positioning itself as a way to play Android games on your TV, hence its Android microconsole classification. The console shipped to Kickstarter backers and became available to the masses in 2013, but it received a rather lukewarm reception. Unfortunately, with competitors like Razer, Nvidia, Amazon, and even Google, Ouya’s future doesn’t look bright.
