Wait, the Ouya’s face buttons spell “Ouya”? This console is officially far too cute.
Oh, the Ouya — for some reason enough people thought a really tiny Android console sounded like a swell idea that Ouya amassed a record-setting 8.5 million Kickstarter haul, but then the console came out and everyone was all “whoa, wait a minute, the only thing I can play on this machine is a bunch of crappy Android games!” Three-quarters of Ouya owners haven’t bought a single damn thing for their adorable little box.
The Ouya needs (good) games, so they’re going back to the place of their greatest (and only) success, Kickstarter…
Ouya has set aside a 1-million dollar fund, which they hope will monetarily convince Kickstarter indie projects to go Ouya exclusive. Basically if you agree to make your Kickstarter game Ouya exclusive for six months, the Ouya folks will give you a quarter of a million dollars. Any game that’s reached a funding target of at least $50,000 is eligible.
Which raises the question — if you’re willing to give a single $50,000 Kickstarter game $250,000 to go Ouya exclusive, why not just directly fund five indie games for the same price? The only reason to go this route I can conceive of is the makers of the Ouya either don’t really have many indie connections, or are just scared s–tless of taking a chance on anything, so they want fans to rubber-stamp something on Kickstarter before they attempt to snap it up. But how many gamers are going to put down their Kickstarter money on a Ouya exclusive? Not many. Basically, the folks behind the Ouya are asking Ouya owners to fund their own exclusives.
Like so much about the Ouya this latest scheme just doesn’t any sense from any angle to me. But man, isn’t the Ouya cute? So small! Like a Gamecube had a baby!
via Kotaku