The Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign is in its last days, and four other Kickstarter darlings are pitching in for the final push, including Ouya, which has created a limited-edition blue console as a new reward tier.
Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton launched the Kickstarter late last month, looking to raise $1 million to bring the beloved education program to the web and schools everywhere; backers met the goal within 11 hours. As of this writing, the campaign has brought in more than $4.28 million from nearly 88,000 backers, good for fifth place on the list of the top-grossing Kickstarters of all time.
Burton and his team announced shortly after the start of the funding drive that if it reaches the $5 million mark, they will be able to release the new Reading Rainbow as an app on Android, set-top boxes and gaming consoles. Ouya announced today that the $5 million stretch goal now includes an Ouya version of Reading Rainbow. In addition, the company will contribute a free Ouya to each of the Adopt a School reward packages, which are at the $5,000 level of the Kickstarter campaign.
And in an effort to help the Kickstarter get to the $5 million mark, the micro-console manufacturer is producing 500 units of an Ouya and accompanying controller in "Butterfly-in-the-Sky Blue," all of which will be autographed by Burton himself. The unique package is now available as a $250 reward tier for the Kickstarter.
The three other highest-grossing campaigns in Kickstarter history — the Pebble Smartwatch (No. 1), the Pono Music audio player (No. 3) and the film Veronica Mars (No. 4) — are also contributing their own Reading Rainbow Kickstarter-exclusive limited-edition rewards. All the details are available in today's Kickstarter update. And yesterday, Burton announced that Family Guy creator and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey executive producer Seth MacFarlane will match every dollar contributed above the $4 million mark, up to a maximum of $1 million.
Less than five days are left in the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign: It will end at 3 p.m. ET on July 2.