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Razer changes its mind on Ouya “Free the Games” fund, will pay indie devs $600k
It seems like only yesterday Razer Inc was adamantly claiming that its acquisition of Ouya Inc’s software assets did not include the responsibility to pay indie devs who took part in Ouya’s “Free the Games” program, which promised to match contributions to games developed for Ouya that were successfully funded through Kickstarter.
Come to think if it, that was only yesterday, but now Razer is backtracking on its previous statements and is saying that it will pay out over $600,000 to indie developers, presumably out of the kindness of its heart and not for any legal reasons.
“We only acquired the team, the platform and the assets of Ouya,” Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan reiterated in an interview with Polygon. “We didn’t look at the debts because that’s not how the deal was structured for us.”
Despite having no legal obligation to fulfill Ouya’s promise to pay indie devs who developed games for its system, Razer plans on honoring the deal, likely as a way to appease developers who it hopes will continue working on the platform now that it is being folded into Razer’s Forge TV set-top box.
“What we want to do is make sure we support indie developers,” Tan said. “Razer will be backing the new Ouya publishing arm. So we are going to try and make good on this fund and give these developers an option.”
According to Polygon, indie devs looking to get their money from Razer will need to sign a contract that stipulates the terms of the program, but it will have two major changes over the original deal. First, the games will no longer have to be Ouya-exclusive and can be released to any platform. Second, the developers must give out free copies of their game through Razer’s Cortex game library in an amount equal to the money received. Cortex is Razer’s rebranded name for the Ouya game storefront.
“The financial terms remain largely the same,” Tan said. “This was a marketing campaign for Ouya to bring games to the Ouya platform exclusively. We don’t want exclusives for any platform. What we will ask for is that whatever sums we invest in a game, we would like that same amount to be given away on Cortex.”
Tan said that Razer intends to contact developers regarding the new deal as soon as possible.
photo credit: CeBIT 2011 – Razer via photopin (license)
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