Razer Taking Over Ouya Indie Commitments, But With A Catch

Razer quietly purchased Ouya last month to bolster their own Android micro-console, Forge TV, and Cortex. Sounds like it could be something big, but things aren’t going too smoothly at the moment.

The acquisition of Ouya has left a number of indie developers high and dry;  they’d signed up for Ouya’s Free The Games Fund, which was supposed to match the amount that the devs manage to raise through crowdfunding so they could finish development. The money was going to be given as the devs hit milestones, but some devs have revealed that Ouya will no longer be holding up their end of the bargain.

This is clearly distressing for developers whose projects are halfway (or less) through development, but Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan didn’t know about the FTGF’s outstanding debt. “We only acquired the team, the platform and the assets of Ouya. We didn’t look at the debts because that’s not how the deal was structured for us,” said Tan in a phone interview with Polygon.

Only a small number of the developers accepted into the FTGF program have received the promised funds,  because a large number of the developers hadn’t yet reached their milestones. Ouya still owes devs $620,000 of the original million.

Tan has proposed a solution, though: a new contract that mirrors the original, but with a couple of changes. There will be no more platform exclusivity; in its stead, Razer will require the developers to “give back” the funds in the form of the finished game. Free copies of the game must be given away on Razer’s Cortex storefront, matching the amount that Razer had given them. If Razer had given them $10,000 and the developer sells their game for $10, then the developers must give away 1,000 free copies on Cortex. The developers are still free to sell their game on other platforms simultaneously.

Tan said that his team will still have to work out the specifics of this new contract, but it currently sounds like an unfair deal, granted he thought this up between midnight and 3am. We’re talking about independent developers, and while we’ve witnessed some indie projects become runaway hits, a lot still struggle to even get their game noticed. What do you think of this proposed solution? Should the devs take up the offer, or shelve their projects until a better deal is drawn up?