Ouya, the Android-powered alternate gaming console released earlier last month, is aiming to lure in new game developers by offering them some of its Kickstarter funded cash in order to develop new exclusive games for the Ouya.
According to The Wall Street Journal, starting on August 9 the new Kickstarter campaign will match all funds pledged by the game developers between $50,000 and $250,00 to build their games. The funding campaign will continue until the company spends $1 million matching funds or August 10, 2014 - whichever comes first.
Julie Uhrman, CEO of the San Mateo, California based company said Ouya was returning to the crowd-sourced online funding platform to mark the one-year anniversary of its own Kickstarter campaign, which raised nearly $8.6 million to pay for design and production of the console. This well eclipsed the $950,000 mark that the company had initially intended to raise, making Ouya one of the site's most successful campaigns.
Matching the funds raised is not the only thing Ouya plans to do to convince developers to make games or them, at the end of the campaign, the highest pledge offer will receive an additional bonus.
"The kicker, at the end, is whichever raises the best will get a $100,000 bonus," Uhrman said. "We're saying, 'hey, you're a rock star.'"
All developers who participate and receive money from Ouya will have to make their product exclusive to Ouya for at least six months. This is a good move by the company as it has been facing difficulty in sales against more popular gaming consoles like Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo as it doesn't have the same degree of recognition or the popular titles that come with a mainstream console. Hopefully for Ouya, and fans of alternative gaming, the Kickstarter campaign will add a few worthwhile titles to the Ouya system. So far, more than 10,000 people have downloaded the developer's kit.
