Muffi Ghadiali, one of Ouya's co-founders, has resigned from his position as VP of Product Development, according to a statement from the company. According to a source, Ghadiali chose to quit Ouya voluntarily and the company had nothing to do with it.
In a statement made to TechCrunch, an Ouya representative praised Ghadiali's contributions at the company. However, the statement suggests his mission at the company was complete.
"OUYA is focusing more on the next phase of the business and product development. We've made some recent changes including the departure of Muffi Ghadiali who was invaluable during the launch of OUYA. As is to be expected, OUYA is an ever-changing business, and as we continue to grow our needs shift accordingly," the representative said.
Before working with Ouya, Muffi Ghadiali worked as a product manager for Kindle hardware at Amazon. He was the key individual in establishing the Ouya as a serious consumer product, which seemed to work for a time.
The console launched back in July of 2013. However, despite a positive first week for the micro-console, it is not certain how the device is faring at the moment. What we do know though, is that the majority of Ouya owners are not purchasing content. Instead, they choose to focus on free game content, and possibly piracy.
According to Julie Uhrman, CEO of Ouya, only 27 percent of owners purchase content. It means the other 73 percent users are failing to take part in acquiring premium content.
"Monetization on Ouya is so far better than we expected," Uhrman told The Verge in an exclusive interview. "It takes time to build what traditional consoles have had decades to build. But really, I think it's too early to draw such broad sweeping statements about how a platform is going to perform."
Despite the low number or users spending on content, Uhrman still believes that developers can make money from the platform.
"To say developers can't make money on Ouya - I take offense to that," Uhrman said. "I'm sure the creators of TowerFall and Hidden in Plain Sight would take offense to that. The console has only been out for a month, and developers have only had access to the hardware for about 6 months. We really like what we see so far, and so do developers and gamers."
