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[GDC 2014] Ouya’s free-to-try policy for games no longer a guaranteed thing

One of the features that made Ouya appealing was the fact that gamers could try any of the games for the Android-powered console for free. Well this policy for the Ouya Marketplace, which used to be mandatory for developers to follow, is now no longer a guaranteed thing.

Ouya’s head of developer relations, Kellee Santiago, announced the new at GDC 2014 stating that the company will be changing this policy. Up until now, it was mandatroy that developers offering their games on the Ouya Marketplace had to allow gamers the ability to try their games out for free. This is, of course, only applicable to games that are not 100% free or free-to-play titles.

In response to developer feedback, in order to give more flexibility to game-makers to decide what content they want to make on Ouya, starting April we’re making the free-to-try component optional. – Kellee Santiago, Ouya’s head of developer relations

We are not exactly sure when this will take effect but since it is just a policy change, this could already be in effect. Essentially all developers could update their games right now and remove the ability to try their games for free. It would be not the best thing for a developer to do and, in fact, developers should be encouraged to offer up free trial periods of their games anyways to encourage consumers to check their titles out.

Website Referenced: Ouya

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