Razer confirmed in an official press release on Monday that it purchased Ouya, the company that produces games for Android devices. The deal was completed last month, June 12, but the details regarding the transaction have not been disclosed yet. The deal made the news in June, when Razer announced its plan to take the Ouya users and move them to the Forge TV micro console.
According to company representatives, Razer will now be dealing with the software side of the business and will have nothing to do with the Ouya hardware part. Julie Uhrman, CEO and one of the founders of Ouya, said she is not planning to move to Razer following the latest transaction.
The latest Forge TV micro console was first presented at CES 2015 and can be used for playing Android games on the TV screen. Also, the micro-console will be using Razer’s Cortex technology that will allow the players to stream PC games right on the TV.
The Forge TV micro console will compete with Nvidia Shield Android TV console, which has more than 50 Android games that were optimized by Shield at launch. Also, it’s compatible with Nvidia Grid, which is the cloud streaming service which lets the users stream games at a resolution of 1080p, 60fps, if a 50Mps internet connection is available. The Grid is available in two subscription plans: the basic one, which provides a 720p resolution, and the premium one at 1080p.
The subscribers get a library full of games but they have to purchase the AAA titles. According to Nvidia, the users get the AAA game releases at the exact time as other consoles and PC, but they will be able to play them after a minute on the Shield via the Grid.
Last year, in August Ouya announced its partnership with Xiaomi, which offered the games it made in-house and users could play them on the Mi Box set-top box that came with the Mi TV. The company also made the platform available to developers and asked for a5% revenue. Ouya said it was given more than $10 million in funds last year.
Min-Liang Tan, CEO of Razer, explained that his company has long-term plans for the Android TV and consoles like the Alibaba Tmall Box and Xiaomi Mi Box, and Ouya publishes games for both of them. He added that Razer will keep the service of Ouya for only one year and then it will close it down completely.
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