Razer aims to spur (OS)VR game development with $5M VR dev fund

Heads up, VR devs: This month Razer launched its OSVR Developer Fund, which has a starting pool of $5 million and a mandate to aid VR developers with funding, marketing and promotional support.

It's a nice potential funding source for VR-curious game makers (and a bit of a shot across the bow of VR game exclusivity), though there are some notable caveats.

To provide funding Razer is technically offering to buy (in bulk) copies of the game in question, which will then be used to promote the game on the OSVR platform Razer helped design (alongside Sensics and other VR-focused companies.) In return, developers must promise to make their game support the OSVR platform and maintain that support for at least one year after release.

It's a similar scheme to the one Razer announced last year after it bought struggling game company Ouya, then realized some devs were still owed money from Ouya's "Free the Games" fund. Razer eventually proposed to make good on Ouya's debts, in return for game keys from devs valued at the amount Razer paid them that Razer could then use on its Cortex TV game storefront.

This month Razer also announced a new $400 OSVR headset, the HDK 2, which is slated for a July debut.