James Delahunty
26 Jun 2013 5:34
The official Twitter account for the Ouya Android console - launched yesterday - has removed a retweet celebrating emulation after Kotaku pointed out its piracy implications.
Being able to use emulators with Ouya is old news. The ambitious project had been asked about whether emulators would be available from the Ouya store, to which is confirmed that it will accept emulators but not Roms, and not any retro games that are not properly licensed.
Yesterday, when the Ouya officially launched and promptly sold out, the official Twitter account was retweeting Ouya owners on their reasons for investing in the console. One of the tweeters commented, "Use current controllers, expand ports, and #retro games," referring to using an Xbox 360 controller with the Ouya to play old games.
In a picture he added to the Tweet, you can clearly see Super Mario Bros on the screen, a game that is not officially available for Ouya.
Not only did the Ouya Twitter account retweet him, but it also added #FreetheGames to the tweet.
Kotaku picked up on the tweet and contacted Ouya, suggesting that its encouragement of playing another console maker's games on emulation is provocative, to which Ouya replied by removing the tweet and restating the company's policies on emulators.