One year ago, Ouya took Kickstarter by storm with a new way to play video games. Today, Ouya begins its next chapter with the announcement of the OUYA Free the Games Fund, a first-of-its-kind program to support Kickstarter crowdfunded game development, with $1 million in matching funds. The funds will enable developers to bring new and exciting games exclusively to Ouya. More than 20,000 registered OUYA game developers, plus tens of thousands of other game creators, could have access to matching funds from $50,000 up to $250,000 for Ouya-bound games launched on Kickstarter between August 9, 2013 and August 10, 2014.

"There are two reasons why Ouya is on retail store shelves today: we had an innovative idea to build an affordable and open game console for the television, and we found fans who supported our idea and provided the funds to make it happen," said Ouya CEO and Co-Founder Julie Uhrman. "Since then, we’ve seen dozens of great games launch on Kickstarter, and now we are in the enviable position of being able to give back AND secure the best, exclusive games for Ouya."

The Ouya Free the Games Fund will ensure a steady stream of inventive and creative content for Ouya fans for years to come. Some of the most popular Ouya games began as Kickstarter projects, and found their initial fans and funding there, such as Fist of Awesome (I Fight Bears) and Saturday Morning: RPG (Mighty Rabbit Studios), and upcoming games Broken Age (Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions) and Whispering Willows (Night Light Interactive).