Ouya tops $8.5 million as Kickstarter campaign comes to a close

"We've been blown away the whole time," Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman said this afternoon, just 10 hours ahead of her company's Kickstarter project reaching its end. It's an understandable reaction considering the Android-based open-source console aimed to gather just $950K in total – the project lept over $1 million in its first eight hours, and crested over $8 million this afternoon. The final number at time of publishing? $8,580,682 (from 63,277 backers).

Uhrman believes the reaction goes beyond what her company's offering, and that the Ouya's success is more than just a measure of interest in the console. "People are ready for something new, and Ouya is that thing," she claimed.

Since we first heard about Ouya, it's gotten a whole mess of new features and support. Both Namco and Square Enix are working with the console, as are a variety of multimedia applications (iHeartRadio, XBMC, OnLive), not to mention indies. "We never expected to do this well and be this well-received," Uhrman added. "It's just truly amazing that it's resonated so well with gamers and developers."

Uhrman said that, beyond the Kickstarter backers getting their consoles first, Ouya will be "taking pre-orders" via web for consoles, and those will ship at some point in April 2013. Ouya backers can expect their consoles to arrive at some point in March 2013, and Ouya promises we'll hear more before ... yup, 2013.