I had never written a serious article about a mouse until this weekend. It was liberating to do so, to get out my comfortable creative box. But as I busied myself in front of the keyboard I had a realization: I needed help. I didn’t know much about luxury mice and I didn’t know squat about how Razer operated and where the PC peripheral manufacture got its design ideas. So, I asked for an interview.
In the article about the Imperator, I gathered a few quotes from Razer president Robert Krakoff that I felt articulated or highlighted points that I couldn’t. Below is the full, six-topic interview that I had with him via e-mail.
Topics covered? He talked to me about ideas, feedback, Macintosh, left-handed mice, connecting with an audience, CES, and even corrected me about technical aspects.
Keep in mind I used some of these in the previous article, but I do think Krakoff had some cool things to say.
A 5,600 DPI precision mouse with a 3.5G laser sensor. What was the motivation for making a mouse that can hit the speeds that it can?
“In fact there are multiple metrics that go into the optimization of the gaming mouse of today and DPI is only one of them. Performance of the overall engine depends on inches per second movement, frames per second, polling rate and band width. DPI is the most well known to many gamers and Razer is probably responsible for creating this DPI 'race to space' since we introduced the first high DPI mouse in 1999. There are still a number of high sensitivity, 'twitch' gamers out there who want the highest DPI possible and for them the ultra-high DPI enhances precision, accuracy and overall control.“
Most PC-oriented peripherals don’t support Macintosh. Why does the Imperator? What does that say about the platform?
“The Mac community was loud and clear beginning in the late 90’s that they were important and wanted to be considered as avid gamers too. Razer has been supporting the Mac for a number of years. Nearly every Razer product has some level of Mac compatibility, with or without drivers.”
How do you get the ideas for your products? Is it consumer feedback? Do you prowl message boards and read Internet petitions? What’s the process like?
“At Razer we encourage and reward innovation. First off we make it a habit to hire gamers in every office and throughout the company. We have a very aggressive internship program. For us the product development process begins internally. We also have a large group of friends, fans and fan sites, like Razer Blueprints. We ride the message boards and encourage our users to submit their wants and needs to us. We also have a very strong community commitment where we support and sponsor gamers and teams – and many of these top professional players are a part of our development and validation process.”
The answer seems clear, but I’ll ask: what about a left-handed Imperator? Could we ever see that?
“Most of the Razer mice since 1999 have been ambidextrous in design, and therefore support left-handers. Over the last few years we have expanded our design factors to include right-handed ergonomic designs. Unfortunately the number of left-handed gamers is very low and the costs involved in tooling and manufacturing left-handed versions of our ergonomic mice has been cost prohibitive. Of course we never say never and if any gaming company were to offer a left-handed gaming mouse my guess is that it would be Razer.”
Do you think your products connect with PC gamers? How so?
“First and foremost, Razer is a company that is full of gamers and values the input we receive from our fans and professional gamers. We pride ourselves on make high quality products that perform as we promise and always stand behind our products. We are also active members and supporters of the gaming community, which has always been an integral component of our company. At Razer, we believe that we should be a part of the community and give something back to the gamers who have supported our products for over ten years. Lastly, our brand is just plain cool and fits the image of gaming.”
What’s next for Razer? What does the future hold? What can we expect? Tease me.
“Next is the big Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in just a couple of weeks. Razer has a major booth there and we will be presenting our new products to both the world press and our distributors and retailers. For this CES we have some exciting announcements and new products that will blow people away as we reveal the next chapter in Razer’s development. Of course you will have to be there or read about it first hand on January 6th. Is that enough of a tease for you?”
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We'd like to thank Robert Krakoff again for his time.
Contest:
12:00 PM on 12.22.2009
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Yes, £50. More than a new game on a mouse I could easily of spent £5 on. Eep.
Worst part: they spoil you on mice. It gets frustrating using slower mice on friends' computers.
Great, I'll start work on porting Minesweeper over to OSX immediately!