The first night in Treasure Island, before we laid our heads on our couches, Wes showed us an article on what we would soon learn was the Switchblade. The next morning, we were at the Razer booth to see it for ourselves. If the recent pre-order date for the Onza and the assigned name of Hydra to the Sixense motion controlling weren't enough, the idea of a portable Defense of the Ancients gave us plenty to dream about.
We had been talking about the Razer Onza since last year when they first teased us with the product. Since then, aside from building tremendous anticipation, Razer created a Tournament Edition of the controller that conforms with sanctioned events, after receiving a little grief. More exciting, however, is the announcement of a pre-order date for both that was announced during the show. You can begin ordering the Tournament and Normal editions, $49.99 and $39.99 respectively, starting January 17th.
The Sixense motion controller was also being showcased this year, except running a special version of the upcoming title Portal 2 along with Left 4 Dead 2. Also, as opposed to last year the controllers ran wired, which elimanted even the fraction of latency they were fighting with last year. The peripherals also received an official name, a fitting Hydra, which matches the twin head controller design.
Finally, and most exciting, is the advertised Switchblade. This is a mobile gaming solution, the specifications of hardware of which haven't been released but was pre-loaded with copies of taxing titles such as Left 4 Dead 2, StarCraft 2, and World of Warcraft. It's unqiue in its design of an LED keyboard, the characters of the keys actually dynamic, meaning they switch depending on what you're playing. Very basically, when you launch Warcraft 3, the font of the keys will change to that theme. More in-depth, once you get in-game, the keys switch from alpha-numeric buttons to actual buttons in the game; skills, directional keys, bags, etc., these are actual sprites from the software. So in World of Warcraft, instead of using WASD and the number row, you'd use a directional arrow set-up and your skill line will replace the characters on the keyboard. The Switchblade is also a touch interface, but of course mice can be used.
We had a chance to sit down with Robert Krakoff, President of Razer, during lunch to talk about it and Razer in general:
"Well I mean you have a limited number of pixels, a limited number of sprites, the developer can only do so much with it, there's only so much power. And you know, it's a great product and I've seen the 3D product, like the gaming tablet, and I'm glad they weren't in the gaming category because we would've lost that. And I'll tell you, it was very deserving, but 3D is a gimmick. I mean, how long are we still waiting for HD, the full capability. I will not be alive, I will go on record and say that I will not be alive when 3D makes it to a broad consumer base. I really don't think it's going to happen.
The games will continue to develop and develop, we're talking layers and layers of complexity, higher and higher system requirements, to do a hand held. I mean, if we do it right it will play all the games you want today and probably the near future. It's going to be like the Xbox or the Playstation... it's a console, it's a PC console.
There's a huge OEM show [in China], and you can walk down any aisle looking for a keyboard, and there's like 10,000 guys selling keyboards. Mice are like 20,000; it just never ends. There's two ways to run a business: make it or buy it. Any business class today will tell you, don't make anything, just buy it. It's a higher return on the investment. There are all these reasons not to do what we do."
The Sixense motion controller was also being showcased this year, except running a special version of the upcoming title Portal 2 along with Left 4 Dead 2. Also, as opposed to last year the controllers ran wired, which elimanted even the fraction of latency they were fighting with last year. The peripherals also received an official name, a fitting Hydra, which matches the twin head controller design.
Finally, and most exciting, is the advertised Switchblade. This is a mobile gaming solution, the specifications of hardware of which haven't been released but was pre-loaded with copies of taxing titles such as Left 4 Dead 2, StarCraft 2, and World of Warcraft. It's unqiue in its design of an LED keyboard, the characters of the keys actually dynamic, meaning they switch depending on what you're playing. Very basically, when you launch Warcraft 3, the font of the keys will change to that theme. More in-depth, once you get in-game, the keys switch from alpha-numeric buttons to actual buttons in the game; skills, directional keys, bags, etc., these are actual sprites from the software. So in World of Warcraft, instead of using WASD and the number row, you'd use a directional arrow set-up and your skill line will replace the characters on the keyboard. The Switchblade is also a touch interface, but of course mice can be used.
We had a chance to sit down with Robert Krakoff, President of Razer, during lunch to talk about it and Razer in general:
"Well I mean you have a limited number of pixels, a limited number of sprites, the developer can only do so much with it, there's only so much power. And you know, it's a great product and I've seen the 3D product, like the gaming tablet, and I'm glad they weren't in the gaming category because we would've lost that. And I'll tell you, it was very deserving, but 3D is a gimmick. I mean, how long are we still waiting for HD, the full capability. I will not be alive, I will go on record and say that I will not be alive when 3D makes it to a broad consumer base. I really don't think it's going to happen.
The games will continue to develop and develop, we're talking layers and layers of complexity, higher and higher system requirements, to do a hand held. I mean, if we do it right it will play all the games you want today and probably the near future. It's going to be like the Xbox or the Playstation... it's a console, it's a PC console.
There's a huge OEM show [in China], and you can walk down any aisle looking for a keyboard, and there's like 10,000 guys selling keyboards. Mice are like 20,000; it just never ends. There's two ways to run a business: make it or buy it. Any business class today will tell you, don't make anything, just buy it. It's a higher return on the investment. There are all these reasons not to do what we do."
