When we reviewed the Ouya recently we found it a little lacking - not in ambition, and also not in potential, but in polish. And yes, having a few more games wouldn't hurt.
With that in mind, it's promising that Ouya has just announced a $1 million fund for games which find support on Kickstarter.
The Ouya Free the Games Fund will provide between $50,000 and $250,000 up to a total of $1 million for video games which successfully raise $50k of their own on Kickstarter - as long as they come to the Ouya platform.
The funds are open to the 20,000 registered Ouya developers ,as well as the tens of thousands of others who might be interested in seeing their games come to the system.
"There are two reasons why OUYA is on retail store shelves today: we had an innovative idea to build an affordable and open game console for the television, and we found fans who supported our idea and provided the funds to make it happen,"said Ouya CEO and Co-Founder Julie Uhrman.
"Since then, we've seen dozens of great games launch on Kickstarter, and now we are in the enviable position of being able to give back AND secure the best, exclusive games for OUYA."
Ouya published the following requirements for the programme:
- Game projects must launch on Kickstarter on or after August 9, 2013, and conclude by August 10, 2014.
- Games must meet their Kickstarter funding goal and raise a minimum of50,000 to be eligible for matching.
- Once successfully funded via Kickstarter, OUYA will match 100% of the total funds raised up to250,000.
- Game creators must make their game exclusive on OUYA for a minimum of six months beginning on the date the title becomes available for download on OUYA.
- And, for the game that raises the most via Kickstarter by the end of the program, the developer will earn an additional100,000 Rock Star bonus from OUYA.
This is great to see - though we can't help but think $1 million spend on building a better controller might have been a bit more worthwhile...