Razer says it will pay what Ouya owes to indie devs
Razer will make good on more than $600,000 in funds potentially owed indie developers as part of Ouya's Free the Games initiative, the company's CEO tells Polygon. — Only about a quarter of the developers promised matching support …
Context & Ripple Effects
Razer's pledge to cover more than $600,000 in unpaid Free the Games matching funds closes out a liability inherited from its July acquisition of Ouya's software, tech and dev teams — an all-cash deal that saw co-founder Julie Uhrman exit the startup she founded. The payment lands on a company that only months earlier had hired Mesa Global to find a buyer after failing to restructure its debt.
The move is also cheap competitive positioning: Oculus had just announced a $10 million indie games fund for Rift, and Razer paying Ouya's debts buys goodwill with exactly the independent developers both companies are courting.
First-order effects
- Indie developers promised Free the Games matching support — of whom only about a quarter received it under Ouya — finally get paid, with Razer assuming an obligation the insolvent company itself could not meet.
Second-order effects
- Razer enters the indie-funding contest against Oculus's Rift fund with credibility purchased for roughly half a million dollars, while other creditors and partners of failed crowdfunded consoles now have a template for pressing acquirers to honor predecessor commitments.
Third-order effects
- Crowdfunded hardware platforms carry obligations that outlive their balance sheets, so acquisitions of distressed console makers increasingly bundle moral (and PR) debts alongside code and staff — though Razer's later decision to shut down Ouya's services entirely shows even honored debts don't guarantee the platform survives.
The trend: Gaming hardware consolidators are absorbing failed Android console startups piece by piece, with assumed community obligations becoming part of the acquisition price.