Advertisement

OUYA's new subscription model gives you 'everything' for $60 a year

When the developer of your platform's most popular game says "being the best game on OUYA isn't a huge deal," it might be time to innovate. OUYA is trying. Earlier this year it announced plans to bring its gaming platform to smart-TVs and set-top boxes -- now it's testing out a subscription model. The deal seems pretty straightforward: $59.99 buys a year's worth of access to every game on OUYA. Read the fine print, however, and it's clear this isn't quite the Netflix of Android gaming.

OUYA's all-access pass doesn't instantly make every title in the console's library available to you, but it does drop all of the game's prices down to $0.00 -- users still have to rummage through the store and "buy" titles if they want to play. There are some restrictions, too: purchases made with the OUYA All-Access pass must fall under $30 a piece, and the zeroed-out prices don't carry over to in-game purchases. It isn't clear if these free "purchases" will stay on the user's account after their 12-month subscription expires.

According to an email sent to developers, the All-Access pass is a limited time offer, and purchases made by subscribers will still contribute to their regular earnings. The message asserts that this is a test to see if a subscription model makes sense for OUYA in the long term. Is OUYA's entire library worth $5 a month? Time will tell -- but you can let us know your own opinion in the comments below.