Robert Krakoffbetter known in certain environments by RazerGuy Y one of the founders of the gaming hardware company Razer, has died at the age of 81. Krakoff, who was President of the company that he founded, is behind the first computer mouse designed for gaming, the Razer Boomslang model, which appeared in 1999. This peripheral, in addition to being the germ of the Razer line of gaming mice, was the starting point for the gaming sector. peripherals for computer games.
Razer was not born as a company until 2005, since in its early days it was a registered trademark that belonged to another company: Kärna, the inventors of an optomechanical encryption wheel that was capable of tracking and following the movements of a mouse at a maximum of 2000 dots per inch, a much higher resolution than other mice at the time. Back then not even all mice were optical, and a large number of models, like this first one for gaming, worked with wheels, compared to the vast majority of current optical ones.
In 2001 Kärna went bankrupt and Krakoff founded Razer in 20025 together with its current CEO, Min-Liang Tan. Of course, neither of them invented the gaming mouse. Neither the Razer brand nor its image, which, as they pointed out from their beginnings at Razer, was created by the marketing company Fitch for Kärna. Including the name, its logo, the website, the packaging and even the design and engineering of the Boomslang mouse itself.
Krakoff was famous for its accessibility and closeness. To such an extent that during the first years of the company’s life it practically became its public image. Razerguy sent out a message with every Razer product purchased, and was well known in the media for giving interviews to journalists of all kinds and importance, regardless of whether they had a large following or were just starting out with only a few readers. He was also well known among fans of the brand and its products for personally responding to many of them.
After leaving the presidency of Razer, Krakoff remained a director for the firm as Chairman Emeritus. He was very interested in sports since his childhood, and actually studied journalism on a football scholarship. Furthermore, under the name RM Krakoff he developed a literary career, publishing more than a dozen books since 2009.
We are saddened by the passing of Co-Founder and President Emeritus, Robert Krakoff, known by everyone as RazerGuy. Robert’s unwavering drive and passion for gaming lives on and continues to inspire all of us.
Thank you Rob, you will be missed. pic.twitter.com/2HKNcFaOj2
—R? Z ? R (@Razer) April 28, 2022
From Razer they have lamented their loss, with a statement on their Twitter account in which you can read that the company regrets «the death of one of our founders and Chairman Emeritus, Robert Krakoff, known to all as RazerGuy. His unwavering drive and passion for gaming are still present and inspiring us all.«.
