Razer’s CEO is ‘super excited’ about 5G’s impact on gaming

Min-Liang Tan is the sort of CEO who will say “dick move” on camera and play a round of Apex Legends with you.

His company Razer is a staple in the gaming and esports industries, and it’s known for a selection of high-end hardware – everything from smartphones and laptops to keyboards and even mouse pads – designed with gamers in mind.

Razer co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan / Photo credit: Razer

Tan is adamant that he’s a hardcore gamer, just like his customers. It is undoubtedly a bit of showmanship and marketing, but it’s also true. He sat down with Abacus for a live interview on Twitch.

While he’s always excitable, it’s what 5G could bring to gaming that really sparked his enthusiasm.

“It’s all about enabling gaming anytime, anywhere,” he says. “So when I’m on the road, I’m going to be able to play Apex Legends, I’m going to be able to play whatever game I want – all streamed.”

Is a 5G version of the Razer Phone coming? Tan wouldn’t say. But his excitement about streaming games from the cloud is interesting because it’s a future that theoretically negates Razer’s strength in building powerful smartphones and laptops.

After all, the selling point of Razer’s devices is that they are optimized to run games as smoothly as possible, promising gamers the best experience. But streaming services like Google Stadia or Microsoft xCloud shift all the grunt work to servers in the cloud, allowing even the cheapest devices to run the most demanding games. What’s the point in having a powerful device when all that power remains unused?

But Tan sees this as an opportunity, far from a threat.

“You still need a client,” he says, pointing out that no matter what, people will still need something to play the game on or control it with. “I think our user interfaces business, our peripherals business, is going to do incredibly well.”

“You’re going to be able to see PC games being played on the mobile. You’re going to see console games played on the PC,” says Tan. “How do you bring the keyboard and mouse experience to the console? We’re working with Microsoft on that with our Turret, where you have a keyboard and mouse experience on console.”

Last week, Razer also announced a tie-up with Tencent, China’s gaming behemoth.

Tencent is connected to a remarkable number of games. The company developed PUBG Mobile under license, owns a stake in the company behind Fortnite, and will soon launch a Call of Duty title built for smartphones.