Razer to settle Ouya’s $620k Free the Games Fund debts

Razer will pay developers more than $620,000 in outstanding payments from Ouya’s Free the Games Fund, the company’s CEO has claimed.

Ouya had promised a $1m match-funding pot for studios who successfully crowdfunded a platform exclusive. In recent weeks however, following Razer’s negotiations to buy the firm, participants have told Develop that money was either late in arriving or didn’t come at all.

One source said the situation could mean it may not be able to pay staff until after the game’s release.

Speaking to Polygon, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan has said Razer will pay all developers the money they are owed. There is said to be $620,000 in payments still outstanding. This was said to be largely because milestones still hadn’t been met by certain developers.

Tan claimed he was not aware of the debts when his firm bought Ouya’s platform, team and software library as that was "now how the deal was structured for us".

Razer will fulfil Ouya’s commitments – but there’s a catch. If developers want their money, they will have to agree to let Razer give away their games for free on its Forge TV microconsole, up to the amount of money owed. The firm is effectively buying copies of each title for what it is paying.

Exclusivity rights have been waived however, so developers are free to release on other platforms. It should be noted that Razer is still working on the specifics of the deal, so some details could be subject to change.

"The financial terms remain largely the same," said Tan.

"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."

He later added: "This is purely being done out of goodwill. I think this is going to be great for the developers. I think they’re going to be able to get the games done and gamers will get access to games for free. Then those games will spread through word of mouth."