Over the past few years PC gaming company Razer has started buying up smaller companies focused on the mobile space. The company acquired the maker of the Android-powered micro-console Ouya in 2015. And earlier this year Razer acquired smartphone startup Nextbit.
While Razer’s product lineup is still very PC-centric, CEO Min-Liang Tan tells the South China Morning Post that he sees mobile gaming as a big part of the company’s future.
Among other things, Razer and mobile network Three recently announced plans to work together to offer services and devices for gamers. And the two are also planning to collaborate on “mobile devices.”
Razer was initially a company that provided PC gaming accessories, but over the past few years Razer has started to offer its own gaming laptops (and an ill-fated tablet) to address an under-developed market niche.
It sounds like the company plans to do something similar in the mobile space. While there are millions of games available for smartphones, there aren’t a lot of phones designed specifically for gaming. Of course, there have been a few attempts in the past: the Sony Xperia Play came out six years ago and featured a PlayStation portable-like design. More recently, Acer unveiled the Predator 6 gaming phone with an emphasis on the processor, display, and speakers… but the company never actually released that device.
It’s unclear whether Razer plans to offer a phone with gaming buttons… a high-performance phone with support for an optional controller… a device designed for VR… or a model designed to support game streaming. Or maybe Razer’s got something entirely different planned.
But it’s nice to see Razer officials confirming that the recent acquisitions are a prelude to the launch of a mobile gaming device (or set of devices).
Most likely something related to streaming with a gamepad interface.
Razer do not have the resources to leverage any kind of games network of their own design on mobile nor do mobile developers bother supporting third party networks over their own internal offerings.
If they drop something as well-made, well-supported, and inexpensive as the Shield tablet, I’d be down.
Seriously. I’ve been interested in a Shield tablet but they’re getting long in tooth. Something with updated hardware, near-vanilla Android, and a similar form factor would be a pretty nice device.