Ouya and The Case of the Conspicuous Kickstarter

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So apparently, Ouya began a program where, if devs met their Kickstarter goals AND promised the first 6 months to Ouya exclusivity, Ouya would match their Kickstarter earnings.

One of these projects, a football game called "Gridiron Thunder", is just a little bit shady:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/29/suspicious-ouya-game-kickstarter-campaign-raises-eyebrows

Their Kickstarter quickly reached the $75,000 goal. The problem? There were only about 150 backers, making the tally at roughly $626 per backer. Also, many of these backers have similar profiles, and were only recently created. Also, the devs are a no-name company who claim they somehow have the rights to use NFL-licensed content. Also, the game looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbA9HErjRR4

The Kicker?(heh) Ouya is apparently fine with all of this:

"Based on our program's guidelines, the team behind Gridiron Thunder have successfully qualified to receive the match and we couldn't be more excited to see them bring their game along with their supportive community to Ouya."
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I can't imagine this will end will.

 
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That game just looks so terrible.  I think it might be less suspicious if the game looked ok, but man it looks like garbage.

 
I don't know if the game is crap (the video certainly is, especially when the defense chase after the receiver following his path instead of taking an angle on pursuit), but the company looks legit enough.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/9/prweb9869066.htm

Yes, it is a press release, but it notes "MogoTXT, Inc., a licensee of NFL PLAYERS, the licensing arm of the NFL Players Association, today announced the launch of MogoBall,"   

and they are indeed an official licensee from the NFL Players association.  I don't know the detail of their license such as what they can do with it (if it is limited to Mogoball or may be extended to other games they make), but atleast some part of it is not total BS.

https://www.nflplayers.com/about-us/Group-Licensing/Licensing/

and Scott Fujita, beside the video shut out, is an advisor to the company... so unless he is just throwing his reputation away, I don't know why he would get involve if this isn't "real". crap maybe, but scam? Not too sure.

http://mogoball.com/team

and while I am sure their kickstarter is indeed to take advantage of the Ouya program, it is not entirely unthinkable that a few friend can put up $10k-$30k each...  that used to be how people get their business started... have friends/family/ put up that kind of seed money.   Whatever it is, it is fun reading some of the comments to the IGN article... I think too many are jumping to conclusions...

edit:

sigh. I am reading way too much articles for this.  

anyway, I think this game will play very differently than what we would expect somehow linking their license for Fantasy Football (if that's what their licesne is for) to some kind of pseudo game.  In their video, the play selection is odd (graphic/name)... so this may just be some kind of fantasy stat game with some weird gameplay twist on it to get around Madden... who knows...

And as far as "cheating" Ouya with self/family funding... I can't imagine Ouya has not thought of having an approval process...  they chose to either leave it open or have reviewed the project and accepted it... it is their money...  Some comments are outraged that they are cheating Ouya of money that can be used for other more worthy project (and the dev that could really use it)... well... take it up with Ouya for throwing their money away or not have a council/leadership with a good sense to protect their limited resources.   This whole thing imo is entirely stupid for all of the parties involved.

 
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Vinny said:
There was another game recently with sketchy pledges. Their KS was suspended though.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/06/ouya-free-the-games-fund-project-suspended-by-kickstarter/

Ouya really needs a break. Even when they try to do something good, it ends up being exploited.
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They are getting a lot of publicity for a $1 mil fund especially if these questionable projects do not go through like that holmes game. Even if those games do get fund and Ouya is exploited and there is no publicity, they can thank the genious who drafted this with no oversight other than signing a check.

 
wasabi5858 said:
and while I am sure their kickstarter is indeed to take advantage of the Ouya program, it is not entirely unthinkable that a few friend can put up $10k-$30k each... that used to be how people get their business started... have friends/family/ put up that kind of seed money.
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That's what I was thinking... Looks like this guy enlisted some friends and family members to sign up new accounts and gave them each a few thousand dollars to pledge. It's misleading because it makes it look like the game has grass-roots support when it's really just one guy, but as long as the money is real, is it breaking any rules?

 
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/11/developers-react-to-ouyas-defense-of-free-the-games-fund/

I didn't back the Ouya but I have followed it a bit since it was an open-ended platform. Julie Uhrman sounds like she's a delusional dumbass. Beyond her response to the initial reaction and game sales, she doesn't see the need to address the issues with this campaign?

I get that they've address some of the issues but there are so many glaring problems with this system on so many fronts... hardware, reputation, software (both system software and the lack of games). Given how far they've exceeded their original goal, I'm amazed the system is as bad as it is. 

Again, this is as an outsider looking in so maybe a backer/owner can shed better light on these situations. 

 
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[SIZE=medium]Another FTG contender bites the dust. Dungeons: The Eye of Draconus managed to raise $54,000 on a $10,000 Kickstarter… largely in part  to a generous donation from one of the developer’s father. Despite the developers playing the role of the victim in all of this, they have their own history of sketchiness: they already successfully funded the game on a $3,000 Kickstarter… back in May of 2011. Dad might have to break out his chec kbook again in a few months when people start demanding their money back. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I don’t really get why Ouya is (rightfully) cracking down on these Kickstarters, yet Gridiron Thunder is somehow still in the running. My only thought is that Ouya realized they are dangling a rather impossible goal in front of developers, and they didn’t want it to seem like the whole thing was for naught.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Then again, I’m not even sure that Ouya really cares about expanding their game library. There hasn’t been much to convince me that Ouya wants to do more than turn a profit from selling the console to emulation enthusiasts[/SIZE]

 
There was an update by their CEO, where she said that the Gridiron people pulled their game from the fund voluntarily and they changed how the fund works. 

https://www.ouya.tv/a-word-from-julie-on-the-ftg-fund/

I think it would be better if they just had a vote, where they asked people what game should get funding or they should spend that money towards bringing a non-Ouya game to Ouya. 

 
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