Mobile-gaming publisher Gameloft just released the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game on the Android-based Ouya microconsole.
The game is Order & Chaos Online. It’s a fantasy MMORPG that has thousands of players raiding for loot as an elf, a human, or one of three other races. The game is available to download now for free through the Ouya’s Discovery store.
“We’re thrilled to release one of our most popular games on the new Ouya console,” Gameloft vice president of business development Alexandre Tan said in a statement. “Thanks to Ouya, we can offer players an even more immersive gaming experience on their TV screens right in their own living room.”
Gameloft previously released Order & Chaos Online for iOS and Android. It launched in 2011 and is currently available on both of those platforms for $7. It also features in-app purchasing, which includes top-selling microtransactions like a “Handful of Runes” for $2 and a “Stash of Runes” for $50. Runes is one of the in-game currencies.
“OUYA is excited to be working with Gameloft to bring the wildly popular Order and Chaos Online to the consoles world for the first time,” Ouya chief executive Julie Uhrman said in a statement. “This also marks our first MMORPG expanding the gaming possibilities for all OUYA gamers.”
We’ve asked Gameloft if it expects to generate a significant amount of money with this game on Ouya, especially following reports that only 27 percent of Ouya owners have purchased a game. The developer did not respond, but we will update this story when it does provide a comment.
According to Ouya’s store guidelines, every developer must release a free-to-try version of their game on the platform’s marketplace. It seems that, so far, many gamers aren’t converting to paying customers after trying a title.