Razer Hero: Interview with Min-Liang Tan

Very honestly, we did not have the chance to attend Gitex this year, though we were able to meet up with a very interesting individual, Min-Liang Tan, Ceo and head gamer at Razer, we had a good talk with him about gaming in the region and about Razers new products.

LA: Razer is a popular brand here in the middle east, let alone the UAE, did you expect this massive popularity when you first came around selling your accessories here?

MLT: I think for us, we tend to do very well in markets that appreciate design and technology, and that’s something we have noticed about gamers in this region, they tend to be very well read and versed in these two things and appreciate good quality, I think it was a pleasant surprise.

LA: Razer at the time use to only make keyboards and mice, and slowly you went towards making headsets then started going towards consoles with the Onza and the new arcade stick (which is still in beta), what was the reception to this direction?

MLT: The reception has been phenomenal, When you look at the console market, hardly anyone ever gets excited about 3rd party peripherals, but people went crazy when we released the Onza.

LA: Going back to the Onza, we remember hearing that it was banned from a particular tournament, what was your reaction to that?

MLT: It was pretty funny, when we first founded the company we made a mouse called the Boomslang. I was testing the prototype that we made before we sold it in the market while playing Quake 3. I got banned for cheating because “no one can be so fast!” and this is what razer is about, having the unfair advantage.

When we were banned by MLG, it was weird, I mean here we are with this controller that was approved by XBox and banned for being “too good”, many people were laughing at that league to the point that they lifted the ban 6 months later because all the pro-gamers wanted to use it. I don’t know what to say, but I liked the “so good, it’s banned” title!

LA: Yeah, we remember the “Be imba (imbalanced)” being the tagline for the Razer Naga

MLT: Whenever we release a new product, people are always passionate about it, and by passionate I don’t specifically mean they love it. You get two groups of people, people who love it and swear by it, and then you get another bunch of people who HATE it, saying “you’re crazy, it’s expensive, you’re spending money that shouldn’t be spent” but never in between. Whenever Logitech releases a product, and Logitech make great products, but people are always okay about it and not either excited or furious about them.

LA: Before announcing the Razer Blade, you had a concept for the Razer Switchblade, I (asatiir) was hoping for that to be released. When you announced the Razer Blade, I was kind of disappointed that you put the Switchblade on the side, any chance of seeing that in the future?

MLT: We tend to release products when they are perfect, the Razer Switchblade won “innovation of the year” from T3 and it won another award from CES, but what we do that you might have experienced in every Razer product is that we have to make sure it’s perfect, so once the product is polished to the extent we are happy with. Switchblade is a 3 year old project, this is a generation before the technology we have today, keep an eye out for it, it will be out soon.

LA: The Razer Blade made a lot of buzz when it was announced, did you get any different reaction here in the Middle East?

MLT: Actually yes, we got a bit of a different approach. One of the “higher ups” called one of their investments and wanted to get his hands on the Razer Blade way before its release.

LA: It’s out right now, is it?

MLT: No, it’s going to be released in the US soon. You see, the thing is this, people loved it from it’s technology and design, and people hated for it’s price, saying “you can’t charge that much, US is in a recession right now”

LA: But then you do have Apple laptops that are more expensive than that.

MLT: Actually, the problem is that we are a bit around the same price as Apple. The difference is that from understanding design and technology, that there is nothing like this out there in the world right now. We had to go down and customize every part to get into that mobile form and that’s why it is expensive, and we know it’s expensive. When was the last time people were excited about a PC?

LA: Well, a lot of people custom build their PCs here

MLT: Yes, but I meant in laptops, look at dell, look at hp, Alienware. Don’t take me wrong, Alienware do an amazing job, I am really good friends with them and they have a different approach. When I discussed the Blade with them, they went for as much power as possible and come up with something 2 inches thick. We go for a balance between performance and portability, and we end up with something half their thickness. So, for people who want more power and don’t mind leaving it on their desk, go for Alienware, they make amazing machines. If you’re looking for that portability and performance balance, that’s where the Blade comes in.

I met so many people here asking for the Blade, many of them I had a hard time communicating with because they were talking in Arabic, but all I could understand is “Razer Blade” and “right now”, it was really cool and I’m really wanting to release it here!

LA: Any future plans? I mean, mobile gaming has grown way beyond imagination do you have any plans for that?

MLT: Have you tried the Electra?

(there were a pair on the table)

MLT: why don’t you try it out?

LA: (asatiir tries the Syndicate reboot theme) … I like the bass!

MLT: you can twist the wire to unlock it to you can have a 3.5mm jack mobile handhelds and replace it with a usb connector for PC use.

LA: I also appreciate that it has less green than the Orca

MLT: (laughs)

LA: Going back to the Naga, here’s something to go with the ban, Khalid, my brother and the co-founder of Lochal Archade beat Torchlight using only the Naga by the end of the game

MLT: Nice! (laughs) That’s the funniest thing, when we were testing the Naga, and we never talked about this outside of the company. We hired a group of MMO players to test the Naga while playing WoW. They started playing while sitting up straight, then slowly slouched down lower and lower on the chair, started eating and drinking with the other hand and it was amazing!

The Naga really changed so much for us.

Thank you, Min Liang Tan for your time.

Mohammad AlHuraiz

Founder, editor and host of Lochal Archade. Mohammad has been running Lochal Archade for years and working hard in bringing video game-related content to the UAE and the Middle East as a whole.

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