Gridiron Thunder “Awesome Indie Football Game for OUYA” started with big expectations and much fanfare but slowly devolved into controversy and question. The game was participating in OUYA’s Free the Games Fund and set to receive additional funding.
The crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter set a goal of raising $75,000 but cruised past that mark closing at $171,009 pledged towards the game. 183 contributors committed funds for the video game. Backers and commenters questioned the validity of some of the pledges noting the exceptionally high average amount contributed with 8 backers contributing a pledge of $10,000.00.
The OUYA Free The Games Fund (#FTGF) was designed to support game development for the new platform by providing matching funds. When one game participating in #FTGF was cancelled due to the nature of questionable donations, attention grew on the other crowdfunding projects looking to receive additional funds.
It did not help Gridiron Thunder’s cause when one commenter was threatened with a lawsuit for statements made on the campaign comment page.
Now as of last week, Gridiron Thunder has decided to withdraw their entry from receiving OUYA’s support:
Hi Everyone!
After considering the generous support we received from our donors and speaking with our friends at OUYA, we have decided to withdraw our entry into OUYA’s Free The Games Fund. We now have sufficient resources to complete Gridiron Thunder without requesting matching funds from OUYA.
We feel that too much of the focus lately has been on our Kickstarter campaign instead of on our game. Our hope is that people will now focus more on the game we are about to launch and that we are very excited about.
We are pleased that our decision will mean that there will be more money for other developers who otherwise may not be able to develop games. We hope to see some really great games come out of the Free The Games Fund.
The decision may have partially been driven by OUYA’s statement the rules had been changed. Gridiron Thunder would have been eligible for a much smaller amount of matching funds. As “each campaign has to have at least 100 backers per $10,000 raised” and “Ouya will match 100% of the funding goal, but will not match cash over the goal”.
The launch date for Gridiron Thunder has been pushed back by two weeks and is now scheduled to ship on September 30th. MogoTXT promises more features and polish with the added time.
UPDATE:
As may come as no surprise to some the release of the Gridiron Thunder game has been delayed until the end of October. Also because they are no longer bound by the terms of Ouya’s FreeTheGamesFundt – there is no need for exclusivity. In an updated to backers the campaign organizers shared:
Hi Everyone!
Because we recently chose not to participate in the Free The Games Fund, we are no longer bound by the exclusivity requirement of the program and can make Gridiron Thunder available on all Android and iOS phones and tablets, in addition to the OUYA.
In order to make Gridiron Thunder fully cross-platform, we have decided to postpone the launch of the game until October 30th.
Gridiron Thunder is coming along very well and looking great.
Thanks for your patience and get ready for a great game!
-The Team
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