It’s been confirmed that Razer has purchased struggling Android console company Ouya – though the company doesn’t seem to want you to know that.
It was revealed that Ouya had been placed up for sale back in April, with debts mounting and no sign of a turnaround for the struggling console company.
Rumours had been flying that American PC peripheral maker Razer was in line to purchase Ouya, the Kickstarter-funded Android console project launched in 2013.
While neither company has directly confirmed the deal, investment bank Mesa Global (via Liliputing) has confirmed that Razer has indeed purchased Ouya. The bank reportedly acted as an advisor to Ouya on the deal.
Interestingly, Mesa has since removed news of the acquisition from its website, suggesting that Razer is keen to keep it under wraps. We suspect that the Ouya brand won’t be figuring on future Razer micro-consoles, even if the smarts behind what was a fairly neat device are there in the background.
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The $99/£99 Ouya console had promised to bring Android gaming to the living room TV, offering a portal for developers and an affordable alternative to the PlayStations and Xboxes of the world.
While it landed on time and seemingly on budget, however, the Ouya was onto a loser from the start. Its initially competitive spec proved to be underpowered upon release, its UI was a bit of a mess, and developer support was not forthcoming.
With the recent Razer Forge TV, Razor clearly believes that there’s life yet in the living room Android gaming concept – particularly with the resurgent Android TV OS. Perhaps those Kickstarter dollars will go to some long-term use after all.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
