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Developers pull Ouya games as company responds to Free the Game fund farce

Mike Bithell 'saddened' by the process

Developers pull Ouya games as company responds to Free the Game fund farce
Ouya founder Julie Uhrman has taken to the firm's official blog to respond to controversy surrounding its Free the Games fund, suggesting Ouya is a victim of its own openness.

Uhrman's comments come after two titles popped up on Kickstarter in August with designs on dipping into Ouya's $1 million fund, which promised to match funds raised on Kickstarter for Ouya-specific games if they hit $50,000 or more.

Both games appeared party to suspicious backer activity, with speculation suggesting fake donations had been made in order to hit the $50,000 total.

As a result, one was suspended by Kickstarter while the other was successfully funded.

'Openness is hard'

The funded of the two - Gridiron Thunder – is of particular interest given it raised $171,009 in 30 days with funds from just 183 backers.

Uhrman's response, therefore, has been eagerly awaited, with the company founding stating "being open means everything is fair game, and it means sometimes things don't work out exactly as you hope."

"When it doesn't work out, everyone knows," she added.

Instead of directly addressing the issue – or, indeed, outlining Ouya's particular response to Gridiron Thunder - Uhrman went on encourage developers and Ouya customers to believe in the fund.

"If we can put aside the doubt and embrace the spirit of this fund as it is meant, and of Ouya as it is meant, we might just be surprised by what a little positivity can produce," she stated.

Push and pull

Many developers are upset with Uhrman's lack of a direct response.

Thomas was Alone
creator Mike Bithell claimed the blog post "reads like a press release from a console company locked into a foolish policy and using aspirational language to shift the blame, weirdly, onto its critics."

Developer Sophie Houlden went one step further, adding, "This isn't even a response, let alone a decent one. You don't get to keep my game, you don't get to have any of the games I was looking forward to (or even started) porting to Ouya."

As a result, Houlden made good on her words and pulled her game, Rose and Time, from the Ouya marketplace.

Ouya has yet to respond to our earlier inquiry as to whether it intends to match Gridiron Thunder's raised capital through its Free the Games fund.

[source: Ouya]

US Correspondent

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.