In 1999, Krakoff was behind the first gaming mouse: the Razer Boomslang. Not only was it the foundation of Razer’s now vast array of gaming mice, but it undoubtedly launched the entire peripheral gaming industry. Below, you can see Krakoff himself in an ad promoted the Razer Boomslang mouse in 2002 – along with professional player Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, who signed a historic sponsorship deal with Razer long before the word “esports” came in. in the dictionary. Origin stories can be complicated, and the Razer story is more complex than most. Razer was not really a company until 2005 – it was the trademark of an entity called Kärna, which had invented an optical coding wheel that could track the movements of a mouse at 2000 dpi, a much higher resolution than other mice at the time. . (Yes, the first toy mouse rolled on wheels, although optical mice became one thing.) Kärna went bankrupt in 2001, and Krakoff co-founded Razer with current CEO Min-Liang Tan in 2005, but neither of them invented the gaming mouse: This case study (pdf) describes how a marketing company called Fitch created the entire Razer brand. including the name, the emblematic logo of the three-headed snake, the website, the packaging and, most importantly, the design and engineering of the Boomslang mouse itself. None of this is disputed: Razer’s first press release states that Boomslang “was designed by Fitch, Inc. for the kärna ». Razerzone.com in 1999. Screenshot via Internet Archive But he also mentions a “Robert Krakoff, CEO of Razer” – who would not only become the company’s public figure for the first decade and change, but would make an incredible impression as one of the most accessible public figures of a company that can to never have the joy of learning. You would receive a small message from Razerguy with every Razer product you purchased and its public email address was not just for show. He was known to respond to fans and sit down for interviews with ungrateful journalists who barely had an audience. Sometimes he gave them jobs. According to his Facebook page, he studied journalism at UCLA, although he did so with a football scholarship. She was also extremely honest: in 2009, Sean, an equally unknown journalist, told me that the company did not actually need to sell a single unit of the brand new Razer Mamba wireless mouse at the then exorbitant price of $ 130. The point, he said, was to inspire a huge audience of gamers with the innovation, knowing that they would choose other cheaper mice and merchandise from Razer. A well-known leftist also told me that he wished Razer could make a left-handed mouse, but that he did not have the power as president of the company to do so – the board had obviously decided that it made no financial sense. A year later, I smiled when I saw Razer release the first left-handed gaming mouse, a best-selling version of the DeathAdder mirror image. While Krakoff continued to advise the company for years as “Peer President”, Razer was not his last move from afar. He also founded MindFX Science, a brand that focuses on the sale of energy drinks and supplements, acting as “a healthy alternative to high-caffeine energy drinks and pre-workout products.” Fitness seemed to be an important part of Krakoff’s life. He played for the Los Angeles Rams for five years in the 1960s. Growing up, Krakoff said he enjoyed playing tennis, cycling and fitness. He and his wife, Dr. Patsy Krakoff, even ran a blog focusing on fitness and nutrition tips for seniors and wrote a book on secrets to staying young. The Krakoff always looked a decade younger than you think But under the name RM Krakoff, he also had a literary career – writing a dozen books since 2009. After working as a copywriter, Krakoff said he put his proverbial pen where it’s (the ink tasted like shit). He was involved in both fiction and writing, writing everything from black comedies to science fiction fantasies. His description of America Unbound: Fighting Demons in a Vanished Democracy is … a lot. On Krakoff’s Facebook page, he said he would split his time between Jalisco, Mexico, and Peoria, Arizona, as he liked being “a sunny one and spending six months a year in each house.” He leaves behind two children, Scott and Robin, and five “very nice” grandchildren. Scott contributed to the cover of most of his novels. “We mourn the death of co-founder and honorary president Robert Krakoff, known to all as RazerGuy,” Razer said in a statement on Twitter. “Robert’s unwavering drive and passion for gaming lives on and continues to inspire us all.” We mourn the death of co-founder and honorary president Robert Krakoff, better known as RazerGuy. Robert’s unwavering drive and passion for gaming continues to inspire us all. Thanks Rob, you will miss me. pic.twitter.com/2HKNcFaOj2 – R Λ Z Ξ R (@Razer) April 28, 2022
