Reply To: For Ouya Increasing Choice For Devs Means Decreasing Choice For Gamers
I think you’re really underestimating how much time it takes to add a paywall into a game. Some games can be easy (first level is free), but others can be incredibly difficult. Also, this adds additional time researching and making a compelling buy screen, since the purchase happens within the game instead of in the store. Then, there’s the additional consideration that you have to keep the freemium OUYA version codebase somehow separate from the other platforms you’re maintaining.
As a game developer, when you see these obstacles for a platform with the [small] market that OUYA has, you decide just not to support it. And that’s sad for app developers and gamers. If the OUYA market were bigger, they could demand that all devs make freemium games, but while I like the required free-to-try element on the OUYA, I think this decision is actually better for the OUYA game ecosystem.