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Many developers who signed up to Ouya’s ‘Free the Games’ funding program fear that the companies buyout at the hands of Razer will result in owed money going unpaid.
‘Free the Games’ was announced back in July 2013. It promised to match the crowfunded totals raised by titles that pledged exclusivity to Ouya. However, controversy followed shortly after, resulting in Ouya pulling funding and eventually altering the scheme altogether.
Developers were supposed to receive 50 per cent of their funding upon the completion of a playable beta, 25 per cent at launch and the final 25 per cent at the end of the exclusivity period.
Vice reports, however, that devs were earlier this year asked to sign a revised version of the ‘Free the Games’ contract that added a stipulation regarding bankruptcy or insolvency, allowing either party to waive their obligations should they no longer be in a position to pay their debts.
Ouya has already notified some developers that as a result of its acquisition they will not be receiving any further payouts.
"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," one dev said. "I think Razer will have trouble ahead if this is the level of respect they continue to show indie devs."
Another added that Ouya had requested that this news not be volunteered to the press.
"[Ouya] paid the first instalment when we submitted our beta," another added. "I’ve been working on bringing the game to release expecting to attain the remaining two instalments 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."
