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Two developers accused of abusing Ouya's 'Free the Games' Kickstarter fund

Suspension and disbelief

Two developers accused of abusing Ouya's 'Free the Games' Kickstarter fund
Back in July, Ouya announced a $1 million Free the Games fund that would match - dollar for dollar - funds raised on Kickstarter for Ouya-specific games.

Now the fund, however well-intended, is coming under scrutiny thanks to claims a couple of projects may have attempted to abuse the system.

In order to receive start-up capital from Ouya's Free the Games fund, a game needs to raise at least $50,000 on Kickstarter by August 10, 2014.

So if a developer is crafty, it could - at least in theory - generate $50,000 in fake donations and then develop the game in question with the money invested by Ouya.

And that's exactly what appears to have happened with two projects recently.

Elementary schooled

Those behind the first project, Elementary My Dear Holmes, were probed by Gamasutra back at the end of August when it appeared several fake accounts were created specifically to drum up funding for the project - many using celebrity names and likenesses.

While Kickstarter has yet to comment on the case officially, the Kickstarter for Elementary My Dear Holmes was suspended over the weekend.


Elementary My Dear Holmes

The second project questioned by the site - Gridiron Thunder - reached its funding goal on Sunday despite having a one-time average pledge per backer of $626 with several of the backers sharing the same surname as developer MogoTXT's CEO Andrew Won.

It remains to be seen whether Ouya will revise its standards for the Free the Games fund, or whether Ouya will match Gridiron Thunder's raised funds of $171,009.

We've reached out to Ouya for a comment,and will update this story when we hear back.

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Representing the former colonies, Matt keeps the Pocket Gamer news feed updated when sleepy Europeans are sleeping. As a frustrated journalist, diehard gamer and recovering MMO addict, this is pretty much his dream job.