For years, Razer has been known for creating some of the most reliable – not to mention stylish – PCs and accessories around, from glowing equipment to fancy laptops and tablets that create a unique gaming experience. However, today, the company has made a leap forward with its Android-based gaming console by acquiring the struggling OUYA platform.
On its Razerzone site, Razer announced this morning that its acquisition of OUYA, including its content catalog and online retail platform, has been completed. As a result, Razer will have access to a large number of independent developers who made games for the OUYA platform, as well as the opportunity to advance further on the Android-based game console market. Financial terms were not revealed from the deal.
“Razer has a long-term vision for Android TV and Android-based TV consoles, such as the Xiaomi Mi Box and Alibaba Tmail Box, to which OUYA already publishes,” said Razer co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan. “OUYA’s work with game developers, both AAA and indies, went a long way in bringing Android games to the living room and Razer intends to further that work. This acquisition is envisaged to usher more developers and content to the Android TV platform.”
Those who own an existing OUYA unit (as part of its initial Kickstarter campaign, or picking them up at retail) will have the opportunity to migrate to a more advanced Forge TV micro-console and Serval controller bundle, bringing their games, controllers and accounts to the Cortex TV platform with ease. The OUYA store, which has been home to many indie developers, will soon be launched as Cortex for Android TV, featuring a number of Forge items as well as previously released games.
Initially, the OUYA launched with great success on Kickstarter, and even managed to find good retail distribution at the likes of Target and other stores. As of late, however, it’s been struggling to keep up with good business, mainly due to a poorly conceived ad campaign and a lack of quality third-party titles from AAA developers. This buyout through Razer, however, provides an opportunity to see the service live on, even though it’ll be under a new name.
“When it comes to gamers, Min clearly knows what he is doing,” said Brian Fargo, video game designer, producer, programmer and founder of Interplay Entertainment and inXile Entertainment. “I’m certain that he has clever ideas on how to make his many initiatives with Forge TV fit well with all the titles and hard work that OUYA put in.”
Razer’s Forge TV console is signifcantly more powerful than the OUYA, and Forge will be adding more features later this year with the ability to stream games from your PC to your TV using Cortex Stream, and adding in the Turret keyboard and mouse combo. Adding the large catalog of OUYA games, and its relationships with developers, will give the Android console a significant boost. Plus, OUYA’s relationships in China will help Razer gain a foothold there, as the console battle heats up in that country.
We’ll see how well the migration goes for the OUYA platform and its games over the next few months. However, this is good news for those all around, and could give Razer even more incentive when it comes to its Android platform.
