Indie Developers: Ouya Owes Us Thousands Of Dollars

Published: July 28, 2015 1:21 PM /

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Ouya Investment

On Monday, gaming peripheral company Razer announced its acquisition of the Ouya, which somewhat infamously raised over eight million dollars through Kickstarter back in 2012. The buyout is definitely a sign of Ouya's dire straits in the financial department, but several indie developers say that the company still owes them money. Tech news site Motherboard reports that the developers, who requested to remain anonymous, are still awaiting due payments of upwards of thirty grand. In the later stages of their buyout, the developers were informed that because Ouya would no longer exist as a company, they would not receive the payment they were previously entitled to.

"[Ouya] paid the first installment when we submitted our beta," says one developer to Motherboard in the article above; "I've been working on bringing the game to release expecting to attain the remaining two installments but that won't happen now. A lot of hard work went into controller support and UI elements just for OUYA. It's hard to ask for additional artwork to finish a game when the tail end of your budget just disappears, much less advertise upon release."
While it was hinted at that Razer may be able to provide support to the developers, it hasn't happened yet.

"A change like this can also have knock on effects," another developer said. "I've already emailed the musician I'm contracting about probable audio budget cuts, as that's the main area I'm going to have to make cuts, but the musician has so far not replied to me, so it's affecting my business relationships too."

Ouya "gently requested" that developers don't take the news to the press, another developer said.

"Claiming Ouya no longer exists as a company to get out of funding commitments, while continuing to use the name in the announcements today as if they still are a company that exists, or that they've somehow transformed the company into a product or service, just stinks," yet another developer said. "I think Razer will have trouble ahead if this is the level of respect they continue to show indie devs."

What do you think about the Ouya and the acquisition by Razer? Did you ever have faith in the console, or was it doomed from the start?

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I hate video games. Fun is terrible. Longtime fan of Opie, Anthony, and Jim Norton, The Ron & Fez Show, and stand-up comedy. I'm into gunpla,… More about Jarred