Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the establishment of zVentures, a dedicated arm of Razer Inc. that will identify and exploit investment and funding opportunities with innovative new businesses and emerging technologies. The premise behind Razer's new initiative is rooted in its belief that financial returns should be balanced against the objectives of innovation and strategic progress. To that end, zVentures will specifically focus on start-ups and emerging companies that will have a role to play in the expansion of Razer's product platform.

Additionally, other business units and functions within the wider Razer ecosystem will look to zVentures as an embedded partner for business development, as a source of inspiration for new product advents, and as a prism through which to attract new talent into developing areas of business. "Razer has a long history of supporting partners, third-party product and business development," says Razer Co-Founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan. "The cumulative benefit of those initiatives over the past decade has been very positive and significant. zVentures promises to take the sensibilities of our ventures work forward with far greater reach and impact."

Razer, a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, today confirmed it acquired the software assets of OUYA, including its content catalog and online retail platform. The technical team and developer relations personnel behind OUYA, the leading Android game platform for the television, have joined the software team of Razer, the company additionally reported. Financial details of the transaction, which closed on June 12, 2015, were not disclosed.

"Razer has a long-term vision for Android TV and Android-based TV consoles, such as the Xiaomi Mi Box and Alibaba Tmall Box, to which OUYA already publishes," says Razer Co-Founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan. "OUYA's work with game developers, both triple A and indies, went a long way in bringing Android games to the living room and Razer intends to further that work. This acquisition is envisaged to usher more developers and content to the Android TV platform."

Kickstarter prodigy OUYA, a $99 (for backers) gaming console based on the Android platform, driven by NVIDIA Tegra 3, is finally up for pre-order to non-backers. It starts with a console + single controller option at US $109 (US buyers), $119 (international buyers); $139 (US buyers) and $149 (international buyers) for console + two controllers; and $199 (US buyers), $209 (international buyers) for console + four controllers. The first deliveries will start just in time for next summer, in April 2013. Head over to this page, if you're interested.

A new Kickstarter project is making waves, by proposing an open-source, hacker-friendly platform using Android as its backbone. "OUYA" merges the "satisfying" experience of a console with the developer-friendly nature of the Android marketplace. The project is seeking nearly a million dollars in funds, but it's already managed to reach more than half its lofty goal within just a day. The project's goal is $950,000, a figure it's likely to hit. It's been less than a day, and it's hit more than $590,000. That's no doubt because the higher dollar amounts, $95 and $99, offer the console itself as a reward. So far, the project hasn't outlined any stretch goals, but they seem likely. The funding will go towards converting the prototype to production models with approvals from regulatory agencies, development kits, production orders, and possibly some first-party game development. It also claims that games will be required to offer a free element, be it a demo or the full game with microtransactions. OUYA has already specified its technical specs, including a Tegra3 quad-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of flash storage, an HDMI connection, and Android 4.0. The controller looks fairly standard for consoles, with eight action buttons, two analog sticks, a D-pad, and the addition of a touch pad.