Ouya’s content and library to be migrated to Razer’s Forge and Android TV platforms.
[dropcap size=big]E[/dropcap]arlier this week, Polygon interviewed gaming company Razer, the new owner of the Ouya platform. New details as to what Ouya will become and how this will affect Ouya owners have emerged.
To begin, Razer Inc. purchased Ouya last June. Remember Ouya?
For those who don’t, Ouya was a 2013 kickstarted mircoconsole that runs on Android, and allows consumers to use the platform as a development kit to make games. Ouya was a runaway success on Kickstarter (it’s currently the fifth-highest earning project on the site), and many were excited to see what potential this little console had in store. Unfortunately, excitement for Ouya quickly faded, and the console failed to find a large audience, and its company, Ouya Inc., fell into financial problems.
This brings us to this past month, when Razer purchased Ouya, but not all of it. Razer received Ouya’s content catalog, software assets, and online store; they didn’t want the actual console. Why? Well, Razer already has hardware of there own they want to sell, specifically Forge TV, their own microconsole, that runs on Android TV, a smart TV platform.
Razer CEO and co-founder Min-Liang Tan explained to Polygon how Ouya will be used to expand the capabilities of the Android TV platform, and will build off of what Ouya started.
“Razer has a long-term vision for Android TV and Android-based TV consoles, such as the Xiaomi Mi Box and Alibaba Tmall Box, to which OUYA already publishes,” explained Tan. “OUYA’s work with game developers, both triple A 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.”
Yan also addressed what will become of the current Ouya platform. The Ouya Store will become Cortex, a new, broader, Android software marketplace, and Ouya employees will be transitioning to Razer.
As for the console itself, Yan explained that current Ouya owners will be offered “deep discounts” and incentives for purchasing a Forge TV. But unfortunately, support will eventually cease for the Ouya microconsole itself.
Thus ends the brief tale of the Ouya. Perhaps through the ownership of Razer, Ouya will rise like the phoenix and be reborn as a new platform that will appeal to a wide audience of gamers. Only time will tell.
