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Tag: Ouya

Ouya Free The Games Fund Finds First Success In Neverending Nightmares

Neverending Nightmares

It has been a rough couple of months for Ouya’s Free The Games Fund. After the first three potential games reached their funding goals under heavy criticism and claims of fraud, with one campaign being suspended by Kickstarter, another being canceled by the creator and the final gracefully bowing out of the funding race, we had thought that perhaps no games would ever qualify properly.

Of course, while all of those controversies raged, there was one game that kind of silently slid by in the background, Neverending Nightmares. This game slid by slowly gaining enough traction to remain relevant in the eyes of the media, but not so quickly as to gain the attention of those attacking the other campaigns. It even had a lofty goal of $99,000. Many thought it wasn’t going to make it as it was still far short of its goal when the last week opened up. But a miracle happened and the game was fully funded in the last remaining hours.

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Ouya Revamps Free The Games Fund In Wake Of Controversies

The Ouya $1 Million Free The Games FundWow a lot happened today. I had originally planned on writing a story about yet another game project being swept up in the Free The Games Fund controversy. Earlier this week, Dungeons The Eye of Draconus had funded itself to $50,000 using money from the father of one of the developers. Then a lot happened that ended in Dungeons being delisted from the FTG website and the Kickstarter for the game being cancelled. It was crazy.

I had been trying to get information from both the developer and Ouya in regards to what had happened and received responses from both at the same time. While Dungeons has been cancelled, it was unclear why it might have been delisted. William McDonald was not sure why Ouya had done it, but assumed it was because of the controversy. But now things are more clear.

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Ouya’s Response To Free The Games Controversy Fails To Satisfy

The Ouya $1 Million Free The Games FundEver since the controversies over Gridiron Thunder and Elementary, My Dear Holmes hit, people have been clamoring for a response from someone at Ouya. The one response that we did get wasn’t satisfying. We sent emails to the Ouya team for further comment with no response. People have tweeted them with no response. People wanted to know how Ouya would face these controversies.

Well, in a sense, Ouya has responded further. It is certainly not the response that people expected, nor is it generally the response people needed. What Ouya responded with was a complete hand wave away from the controversies. It isn’t a bad response when taken in a bubble, but it fails to address the fears and concerns people have about the present and future of the Free The Games Fund. 

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Controversial Gridiron Thunder Exceeds Funding Goal [UPDATED]

Gridiron Thunder by MogoTXTJust yesterday, the other controversial Ouya Kickstarter, Gridiron Thunder, reached, exceeded, and successfully finished its funding. This campaign, while controversial in nature, was a far different controversy than the one for Elementary, My Dear Holmes. Where Elementary was controversial for the seemingly high number of fake accounts backing it, Gridiron was controversial for the low number of backers and the vast amount of funds raised by them.

Closing out with only 183 backers, Gridiron raised $171,009 in thirty days. That is about $934 raised per backer. This seems to be because the vast majority of the funds raised were done via $10,000 pledges. While there are no rules against pledging high amounts, neither by Kickstarter nor Ouya, it has called into question just who actually wants to see this game made.

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Elementary’s Conroversial Kickstarter Campaign Has Been Suspended

Elementary, My Dear HolmesThe campaign for the controversial Ouya exclusive game Elementary, My Dear Holmes has been suspended as of Friday, September 6. This game, had it not been suspended, would have qualified for Ouya matching funds for the Free The Games program. However, Elementary had been plagued with controversy since shortly after starting due to numerous seemingly fake accounts backing it and pushing it to full funding within a few days of launching.

Kickstarter has given no word to any backers nor to the project’s creator on why it has been suspended. We asked Sam Chandola what he knew about the suspension and he was not sure as Kickstarter doesn’t provide that information. In a message sent to backers, Sam reaffirms that he had been trying to verify the authenticity of the alleged fake accounts.

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Ouya Responds To Kickstarter Controversies

Ouya Console ControllerDuring the controversies over the potential for the two successful Ouya Kickstarters being scams, Ouya has remained mostly silent. Their communications have mostly been a simple congratulatory note toward both Gridiron Thunder and Elementary, My Dear Holmes. People have been pressuring Ouya for more and they have now relented.

In a forum post at the unofficial Ouya Forums, one admin posted the message he was given by Ouya representatives. While this message will not satisfy the demands of those seeking Ouya’s blood, it does put a definitive statement down for Ouya.

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Elementary, My Dear Holmes Is Legit According To Kickstarter

Elementary, My Dear HolmesEarlier today, we reported on the concerns that the two successful Ouya Kickstarter projects were scams. While there were some rather strikingly large pledges for Gridiron Thunder, we felt the concerns over Elementary, My Dear Holmes were a bit overblown.

Well, we can now confirm that Elementary is legit. At least as far as Kickstarter is concerned. Sam Chandola, the project creator, has been very open about those concerns and had requested an investigation from Kickstarter. In a comment on the Kickstarter, he confirmed that Kickstarter doesn’t feel any real concern over the backers and their pledges.

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Are The Recent Ouya Kickstarter Successes Scams?

The Ouya $1 Million Free The Games FundThat is the question being asked around the media and on the Kickstarters themselves. You may recall back in July that Ouya announced its “Free The Games Fund”, a matching program for successful Kickstarters in exchange for six months of Ouya exclusivity. Since then, a number of Kickstarters have sprung up to join the program. Two of those projects, Gridiron Thunder and Elementary, My Dear Holmes, have reached their goals of $75,000 and $50,000, respectively, pretty quickly. This has raised some concerns among potential backers and Ouya critics that shady dealing have been going down.

While most of the criticisms have little corroborating evidence, there are some very peculiar events happening. The first major issue is with Gridiron Thunder mostly. It has only 129 backers at this time and total donations of over $78,000. A lot of people wonder where that money came from. When looking at the site Kicktraq for Gridiron Thunder, we see some very large donations in a short period of time. There are two separate days that saw over $10,000 raised, one day with over $5,000 and two more days with over $25,000. Those five days are well above the normal daily donation topping at $700 on a good day and under $300 most days. Those five donations put it at its funding goal and sealing Ouya matching funds.

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Super Podcast Action Committee – Episode 66

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