Friday, March 22, 2024

Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff of Razer on Motion Sensing Gaming, Peripherals

Robert 'Razerguy' Krakoff

Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff (RK) is the public face of Razer. He has a history of developing and executing marketing plans through several consumer-marketing channels, and is respected by the gaming and IT media for his views on the gaming industry. GameGuru (GG) got the chance to ask “Razerguy” a few questions. Here is the whole interview:

GG: How has the gaming industry changed over the years?

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RK: In 1999, when Razer launched the first gaming mouse, the Boomslang, there were very few hardcore gamers in the world, and they were mostly 1v1 gamers. With the exception of Korea most of those players lived in Europe or North America. A few years later team games began to take over and gaming spread to Asia/Pacific. The last few years have seen more competitive console gaming as tournament level players have emerged.

GG: What according to you makes Razer gaming peripherals stand apart from the crowd? What is Razer’s strongest product line according to you?

RK: When we entered the gaming world over ten years ago we decided that we would focus on competitive gaming. We have never drifted from that objective even though it has been tempting to make products for home and office or professional users. There are also two other differences where Razer excels, we develop and engineer all of our products and do all of our drivers, firmware and user interface development ourselves. Most of our competitors contract some or all of this work out to OEM makers. Since we make more mice than any other category I’d have to say that the mouse is still Razer’s strongest product line.

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GG: You’ve given us some interesting designs when it comes to mice, with names almost as fascinating? What specie is coming up next?

RK: As you probably know we have always named our products after predatory animals and insects. Mice have always been snakes, keyboards are spiders, mousepads are insects and audio products after predatory fish. The latest is big cats for console controllers, i.e., Razer Onza.

GG: How far has Razer gone with the development of the Onza controller and Chimaera headset for Xbox 360? Has the latter received Microsoft approval now?

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RK: Not to my knowledge yet, but soon.

GG: Can you elaborate on the collaboration with Sixense for motion sensing and gesture recognition controller technology for the PC? It brings to mind Sony’s Motion Controller for PS3, any comments?

RK: This technology marks the next step in user interface technologies for gaming on the PC. Razer and Sixense scientists and engineers along with select PC OEM partners are working on an ultra-precise one-to-one motion sensing hardware that uses electromagnetic fields to track precise movements along all six axes for use in current and future generation PC games. The absolute controller position is tracked to within a mere millimeter for positioning and to a degree for orientation.

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GG: Will the new controller also have force feedback?

RK: Nothing is firm at this time, but the plans are yes it will.

GG: Will this technology be useful for things other than gaming? (like in the fields of medicine, defense, etc.)

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RK: Gaming is our primary focus. Based on the way Razer approaches the hardware and finds methods to enhance tracking and latency, there should be no limitations for gaming or other applications. For Razer, we will be happy to make a successful gaming hardware since that is the business we know and love.

GG: Will this gaming technology also be compatible with consoles? And if not now, than in the future?

RK: PC and Mac for now … let’s see how well this is accepted.

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GG: Is it possible for multiplayer on a single game station? (i.e. using only one sensor and two sets of controllers)?

RK: Yes, as long as the game supports multi player.

GG: With the wide acceptance of gaming consoles what more innovations can we expect for the Wii, PlayStation or Xbox?

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RK: I think that the answer here is up to what the game developers decide to support. In the near future we may see a developer backlash toward consoles, particularly where motion sensing support is concerned.

GG: In the past few years we’ve seen a number of Logitech gaming accessories surfacing through. Do you see that as tough competition? How does Razer plan to gain that competitive edge over other peripheral companies?

RK: Logitech is a fine company and makes excellent products. Razer focuses on products for gamers, not home and office products. We are specialists, not generalists. We know gaming and we know gamers. That is our expertise.

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GG: Like Starcraft II peripherals, is Razer planning to team up with other game developers to bring out specific peripherals for those titles?

RK: Yes we are but I am not at liberty to mention names.

GG: Is Razer joining forces with other companies to unveil different peripherals, in lines with the recent Razer and Sixense merger?

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RK: Nothing to announce at this time, but we always have our ears to the ground.

GG: So Team MYM is back to Razer, any exciting tidbits from this angle?

RK: It is great to be associ

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