Razer co-founder Robert Krakoff, known in the industry as RazerGuy, has died at the age of 81.. His death occurred last Tuesday, April 26, although it was only made public two days later, through a tweet Y A tribute on the company website. Despite this, the news went practically unnoticed for several days; Let’s not forget that Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has been the focus of most of the last week.
In his role as an executive, Krakoff quickly became one of the main figures dedicated to the promotion of specific peripherals for gaming. And in the early years of the 2000s, he was personally responsible for spreading the benefits of devices specially designed to take the video game experience to another level.
as collected TheVergeRazerGuy was a key player in the launch of the first mouse gamer. The Razer Boomslang It appeared in 1999 and paved the way for a catalog of accessories that has not stopped growing since then.
It is worth mentioning that, at that time, Razer was not a company as such. At first it was a brand belonging to a firm called Karnadeveloped in collaboration with Fitch, a marketing agency. And when the parent company ceased to exist in 2001 due to serious economic problems that led to its ruin, RazerGuy allied itself with Min Liang Tan —current CEO and creative director of the firm— to keep Razer alive.
In 2005, Robert Krakoff and his partner formally turned Razer into a company. And over the years they managed to install it as one of the most outstanding in the field of peripherals for gamers. But the company’s commitment has not been only for mice, keyboards and laptops for gamers. hardcore, but also for other quite peculiar products; from a customizable desktop to futuristic masks, not forgetting the (frankly ridiculous) thimbles to play with the mobile.
However, they have also set their sights on productivity and have done so very successfully.
RazerGuy, the complete unknown who put Razer on the map
The case of Robert Krakoff is very interesting because, despite being a pioneer in the peripherals industry for gaming, he has also been a complete unknown to many. With the exception of those who interacted with a Razer product in the early 2000s, his name has surely gone unnoticed by most.
But RazerGuy was key to installing the idea that accessories could be created to really take advantage of the video games of the time. Long before other brands introduced any product with RGB lights and labeled it “gamerclearly. Krakoff was in direct contact with the players and always tried to give a special touch to its relationship with consumers.
After hearing the news of his death, many long-time users took the opportunity to recognize the feeling of closeness generated by the executive. For a long time, Razer products were released with a note signed by RazerGuy himself; But that’s not all, as he also publicly shared his email address and regularly responded to inquiries from buyers.
In recent years he no longer had a daily incidence like that of his early days, but he exercised the title of “president emeritus” of Razer. “Robert’s unwavering drive and passion for the gaming They are still alive and continue to inspire us all”, they indicated from the company in their farewell message.