Tadhg Kelly is Ouya’s new ‘free-to-play guy’

Ouya has hired Tadhg Kelly as its new “free-to-play guy” in the hopes of improving monetization on the Android microconsole.

Kelly is well known throughout the industry as a columnist, consultant, and game designer, and relocated from his native Ireland a year ago to join the U.S.-based Jawfish Games.

This is an important step for Ouya, which requires a free-to-play version for all games even if it’s just a demo, but has struggled to turn players into payers.

Kelly’s job will mean working with second-party developers, advising on free-to-play strategies, helping to find new partners for the company through his industry connections, and being an all-around apologist for the hackable console model.

“Even though we’ve not worked together until now, I’ve always admired OUYA from afar,” wrote Kelly in and introductory post on the Ouya blog.

“Fundamentally I just like the idea of the underdog box that could launch 1000 amazing dreams. I love how, even though there’s been ups and downs, the sentiment of the OUYA has remained attached to that goal. Now that I’ve been able to peek behind the curtain and see some of the stuff that they’re working on, doubly so.”