We’ve known for some time that Ouya was in financial trouble and looking for a buyer. Last month, an investment banker let slip that Razer had acquired Ouya, but today we finally have confirmation of the purchase from Razer, along with some details about the transaction and the future of Ouya’s software, hardware, and user accounts.
Specifics about how much Razer paid for Ouya have not been revealed, but we do know that it was an all-cash deal, according to Min-Liang Tan, founder and CEO of Razer. Through this deal, Razer has acquired Ouya’s software, tech, accounts, and development team, but not the hardware part of Ouya’s business. Razer says they will continue to support the Ouya platform for at least 12 months out of goodwill. During that time, they will be encouraging Ouya users to migrate over to their own Android based micro-gaming console, the Razer Forge TV, with “freebies, giveaways, and promotions.”
Ouya’s games, controllers, and accounts will be merged into Razer’s Cortex TV gaming platform and relaunch Ouya’s store as Cortex for Android TV. Razer will be using the Ouya brand as the name of a game publisher for Android based TV consoles. It’s possible we’ll see games developed by Razer come to the Fire TV under the Ouya brand, but it’s unlikely.
SourceTechCrunch
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
Not surprising that they didn’t want Ouya’s hardware. The system has been pretty outdated and had issues with both wifi and Bluetooth. The game library is Ouya’s most attractive asset with some games not available on any other android platform. Towerfall and Duck Game for example. Combine the Android TV library with Ouya’s library and try to attract some indie developers to the service like Ouya was doing at the start and Razer could have something.
However, both Ouya and Razer have pretty poor public perception at this point with both having had rocky launches of their hardware. They have a lot of work to catch up to the Shield android tv which has had the best received launch of any android based tv console or media streamer.