Ouya’s Free The Games Program Revised

Remember that big news about OUYA setting aside $1M for its Kickstarter matching campaign? Dubbed Free the Games Fund, the campaign came under very close scrutiny – both from fans and critics alike. The fact that people put the Ouya’s Free the Games Fund under the microscope is nothing surprising in itself. In this day and age where everyone has an opinion and the venues to express them, no one is really holding back any punches.

So yeah, the Ouya Free the Games program has been criticized, and Ouya was not slow to make the necessary adjustments, to be fair. In a blog entry last week, they announced the changes, making sure it is clear that they listened to the feedback. Brownie points!

Here are some of the revisions to the program.

Project Minimum: Originally, they set it at $50k. Not surprisingly, people thought that the amount was too high. Ouya responded by lowering this to $10k.

Minimum # of Backers: “The intent is for the community to want your game, not a small number of well-resourced supporters. We felt we needed to look at the minimum number of backers to make sure it is in line with the spirit of our program. So, for every $10,000 raised on Kickstarter, you have to have a minimum of 100 backers.”

Exclusivity: “1 month for every $10k funded by OUYA up to 6 months. So, if you set a goal for $20k and you meet your goal, your game would be exclusive for 2 months. If your goal is for $70k, and you meet your goal, your game will be exclusive for 6 months.”

Additionally, the rules have been changed to allow more leeway in the availability of the game on other platforms. They now allow developers to make PC versions of their game. I suppose that this is a huge bone of contention, and making this concession is something that the Ouya guys had to think about.

Those are the main points, but you can see the other changes following the link above.

Judging by the responses to the blog post, not everyone is happy, but the adjustments are being seen as a step in the right direction. Game developer? What do you think about this move?