Welcome to the family, @playouya. pic.twitter.com/QBkUjd4C53
— R Λ Z Ξ R (@Razer) July 27, 2015
The Ouya Android micro console went off not with a bang, but with a trillion tweets. On Monday morning, Ouya founder Julie Uhrman saw direct Twitter messages to a number of people who had worked on or developed for the Ouya along with a vague nod to the gaming hardware folks at Razer.
Soon after, the companies announced a takeover deal, signed on June 12, that made no bones about it: Ouya’s software, storefront, and technical staff were absorbed by Razer, while the original hardware was now discontinued. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Razer even went so far as to kick a little sand in the face of the small console that couldn’t, by advertising its own Forge microconsole as a “more advanced” system and telling Ouya owners that they have “a clear path ahead.” will get”. of Migration” to buy the company’s current $100 AndroidTV-compatible box.
According to the announcement, Ouya’s Bluetooth controllers will at least be compatible with Forge, and Ouya accounts full of games will be transferred to Razer’s own upcoming gaming store. However, instead of launching an Ouya-branded online games store, Razer opts to relaunch its Cortex “game launcher” software with an Ouya-powered games store inside. Razer’s press release also hinted at Ouya content launching on AndroidTV devices, but it didn’t clarify how or why Razer will operate two separate brand stores with similar content.
The announcement follows a wave of bad Ouya news, which peaked in April thanks to leaked news of mounting debt and Ouya’s growing desperation to sell. That news came just three months after the company received a $10 million infusion of cash from Alibaba related to that company’s efforts to build and deliver its own Android-based living room boxes to Chinese customers.
When interviewed by Ars Technica last week, Ouya board member and Xbox creator Ed Fries hinted at the company’s next move. “The most valuable asset [Ouya] doesn’t have the console or the controllers right now, it’s the content library,” Fries said. “A lot of people want that content library for other things they do.” He also praised the Ouya team for what it had accomplished so far , including the historic Kickstarter origins: “Did it end up competing for Xbox or PS4? Not really. We need to be more realistic about what is possible. For a small group of people with crowdfunded money, they did an incredible job.”