Until now, Ouya’s best work was in keeping TowerFall incubated until it was finally ready to come to the PC. Despite a hugely successful early Kickstarter push, only those most committed to the idea of open platform gaming could forgive the Android machine’s launch problems – sticking controller buttons, snagging analogue sticks, lag, and an unlovely interface.
But the microconsole company have managed to keep afloat since – long enough to find a buyer in Razer, them of colourful keyboards and other gaming doohickies.
Ouya founder Julie Uhrman made the announcement on Twitter.
.@Razer Can’t wait to see what you do. Take care of my incredible team and community…I know you will.
— Julie Uhrman (@juhrman) July 27, 2015
“Thank you all, you know who you are,” she added. “I couldn’t have done it without you. OUYA was a once in a lifetime experience. Now, I’m off to find the next…stay tuned!”
Meanwhile, Razer’s Min-Liang Tan has confirmed the deal to TechCrunch. Razer have bought Ouya’s software assets and hired on its technical and developer relations teams – apparently to help with their Android TV business. But they’ve left the console itself and the controller behind.
Ouya’s fate seemed sealed after the company’s post-launch initiatives – to extend the Ouya software to other platforms, and to support exclusives via the ‘Free the Games Fund’ – came to very little. What do you think Razer might do with their staff’s experience?