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Razer Acquires Ouya’s Software, Tech and Dev Teams in All-Cash Deal
- roflchoppa 11y agoDamn, i did not know Ouya was still relevant. I had assumed that the idea had fallen down to obsolescence land. Jokes on me though, they just pulled in 10M.
- SeoxyS 11y agoAfter raising 33M from VCs, a 10M exit leaves everybody with nothing… Likely, the investors got some cash for the IP, and the rest went into retention bonuses.
- roflchoppa 11y agoMan I'm just happy that i got my 100 bucks back from backing that god forsaken console.. also learned how to sell things on amazon, that was a cool experience. So in a way i guess i got my money back from the "investment".
- gorena 11y agoWell, everyone gets nothing except the people with the retention bonuses - the employees. So, money was funneled from rich VCs to workers? I'm... okay with this.
- swang 11y agoArticle says VCs got their money back, which in all likelihood means employees got nothing.
- gorena 11y agoIn my experience with acquihires the employees usually end up with a pretty nice package of RSUs, while the VCs take a huge loss. They don't make money on the exit, but they do well.
- crazypyro 11y agoWhere are you seeing a 10M exit? I don't see the purchase price mentioned anywhere.
- leetNightshade 11y agoI'm not sure where they saw it, as I can't find the source either. The only $10M value I saw was an investment from Alibaba. I did find this though, but we don't know if $10M was the final value: http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/15/razer-grabs-the-struggling-ouya-android-microconsole-investment-bank-confirms/ http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/15/razer-grabs-the-struggling...
- SeoxyS 11y agoI don't know anything about 10M, just responding to the parent comment that said "Jokes on me though, they just pulled in 10M."
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- dang 11y agoUrl changed from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/249573/Ouya_buyout_confirmed_as_CEO_leaves_company.php#.VbZLPu36O90.twitter http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/249573/Ouya_buyout_confir..., which points to this.
- bphogan 11y agoThe Techcrunch article linked in this article has a lot more details, including statements that sound a lot like "your Ouya console will be useless in 12 months - go get a Razer Forge box after that."
- genericuser 11y agoWhy would one expect the usefulness of their Ouya console to change and be anything other than useless? (this is a joke at Ouya's expense, I am pointing it out because based on my past experience making jokes here someone will take this seriously and get all defensive about how great Ouya is) Seriously though in 12 months Ouya will be 3 years old, I don't think expecting a company to actively support a piece of cheap (affordable for those that find the word cheap insulting) hardware for more than 3 years is a reasonable expectation. Ouya had already added the play store I thought (as pointed out below, I thought wrong), and so discontinuing support will probably amount to the Ouya store ceasing to exist and a lack of future patches. I mean its a device to play games mainly in a local manner, it will continue to be able to do that as well as it can now.
- bphogan 11y agoIsn't it interesting how 3 years is such a long time to support things now?
- genericuser 11y agoIn my experience it has been that way for quite a while when you look at lower price point items in developing areas of technology, due in part to the speed at which minor changes are iterated and implemented in new models of devices. But I acknowledge it may not of been this way except recently, and my memory could be painting over the 'good ol days' so I am not any more bitter and cynical about things changing than I already am.
- Joeri 11y agoI just bought a washing machine with a ten year warranty, to replace one made in the 80's for which there are still official spare parts (but that I felt was better off being replaced than repaired). You can find companies who are in it for the long haul, but it is true that most aren't.
- cwyers 11y agoMore info is available at Polygon: http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/7/27/9046895/razer-ouya-android-why http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/7/27/9046895/razer-ouya...
- bananaoomarang 11y agoI actually think the Ouya was a very nice idea, and clearly so did a lot of people who backed it. The execution was awful on so many levels, but there will probably be room in the market for something like this once the console market is done shifting => non-existent. I would guess it will be part of something like the Apple TV box though.
- Scuds 11y agoWhat could have been done besides throwing more money at it? How did Microsoft get the original xbox into a state of relevance?
- TylerE 11y agoBetter engineering. One of the big issues is TERRIBLE (like.... >1/10th of a second) lag with the wireless controller.
- jplur 11y agoMy super hexagon score says otherwise.
- cwyers 11y ago> How did Microsoft get the original xbox into a state of relevance? Halo. I mean, there was a pile of other Xbox exclusive games at the time that probably helped -- Fable, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden, Steel Battalion -- but the original Xbox pretty much made its name entirely on Halo and Halo 2.
- larrik 11y ago"How did Microsoft get the original xbox into a state of relevance?" By dumping an insane amount of money into it, and waiting until the 360 to actually make any profit whatsoever. Not easy to replicate.
- cwyers 11y agoI have no idea why people are downvoting this, as it's pretty accurate. If anything it understates the difficulty. The original Xbox cost tons to develop, and Microsoft spent a lot more money getting games for the thing. In the process they created the canonical example of a console first-person shooter, the genre that now dominates game sales. (You could argue that Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the N64 got there first, but Halo is the one that really moved the market to where it is now.) Then on top of that, they created Xbox Live, which has had at least as much impact on how we play games as Halo did. And you're absolutely right that they lost money in the process. So yeah, dumping an insane amount of money into creating two products that revolutionized the game industry and not recouping that investment until the the second-generation product launched is how they did it.
- J_Darnley 11y agoHa! Why would anyone buy one, or a sequel to it, now that it is made by the company that required an internet connection to use their mouse?