Why the Razer Blade Won’t Save PC Gaming
Since when did it need saving, anyway?
Published: 16:00, 27/08/2011 by Blair [mynameisblair].
24There are nearly three million people online on Steam for most of the day. The peak traffic in the last 48 hours is closer to four million. One hundred and fifty thousand of them are playing Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 alone, with hundreds of thousands playing other games at this very second.
The word ‘dead’ can mean no longer in use, existence or operation. ‘Dead’ can mean no longer having significance or relevance. ‘Dead’ can mean lacking all activity and being physically inactive. These are dictionary definitions for ‘dead’; it can mean a lot of things, and PC gaming certainly isn’t any of them.
- 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 2640M Processor
- 8GB DDR3 RAM with a 320GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
- NVIDIA GeForce GT555M GPU
Particularly when the product being advertised, the one to “save” PC gaming and bring gamers and developers back to the platform, is priced at $2800. Now tell me, in a world where we base many decisions on money and, as we’ve seen, an industry in which people will settle for the cheaper gaming options – how is anyone going to be converted to PC gaming with a product that will cost around £2000?
People with a lot of money and a love for high-priced, shiny pieces of technology might buy one and I’m sure they’ll love it when they’ve got their hands on it, but that’s where Razer have got it all wrong; they’re trying to market it to the wrong people, trying to sell the “first true gaming laptop” to those who don’t have an interest in PC games. They want console gamers to drift away from their relatively cheap consoles (even a $600 PS3 seems cheap by comparison) and spend more than ten times the price* on buying a laptop. That is not how you reinvigorate a platform with a “bleak” future, Razer; that’s how you make it even more niche.
The Razer Blade has some nice features - unfortunately not enough to justify the price.
Another problem is the question of whether it’s future-proof or not; we PC gamers like to upgrade and tinker with our machines to keep them up to date, something that you can’t really do with a laptop. I’m sure it’ll run top-end games for the next few years, I’m just questioning whether it’s completely future-proof, because if a laptop is costing you $2800, I’m sure you’ll want to keep it for the rest of your life.
Still, it’s got a nice name, an undeniably awesome alternative interface and it’s a good size… it’s just nowhere near worth the price tag they’ve set and the advertising campaign that claimed they could “save” PC gaming would only apply if we lived in another dimension where games consoles cost thousands of pounds.
Oh, and PC gaming doesn’t need saving from near-death; claiming that was their first mistake.
*Ten times the price of a console right now. Ok, maybe it’s five times the price of a launch PS3, but that’s still a lot of money.
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27/08/2011 at 16:11
Member since: Jul 2009
How long will it play the latest games until?
27/08/2011 at 16:11
Member since: Jul 2009
sorry, by that I mean – how long before it is out of date spec-wise?
29/08/2011 at 10:27
Member since: Jan 2011
At the highest quality? Probably 3-6months :P
27/08/2011 at 16:14
Member since: Apr 2009
Years, I’d say.
It just wouldn’t keep playing them at top settings.
27/08/2011 at 16:16
Member since: Jul 2009
It does look nice though, did TSA ever get that Top Gear style budget? Wouldn’t mind one as a competition prize lmao
27/08/2011 at 16:21
Member since: May 2009
If we had that Top Gear budget, I’d be testing this in Russia right now.
27/08/2011 at 16:30
Member since: Feb 2010
I wonder how long the battery lasts? An hour? Completely agree with this article though.
27/08/2011 at 16:50
Member since: Mar 2010
1,5 to 2 hours apparently.
source: http://techdeville.com/2011/08/26/razer-reveals-the-blade-worlds-first-true-gaming-laptop/
27/08/2011 at 17:39
Member since: Feb 2010
That’s just not enough, that’s actually REALLY poor O_O
27/08/2011 at 17:45
Member since: Jul 2009
Then why advertise it as portable? Might as well make it thick to make it last longer.
27/08/2011 at 21:54
Member since: May 2009
portable = light weight and doesn’t take up much room. People who buys such a laptop, will damn sure also have access to a power socket when using it.
28/08/2011 at 15:53
Member since: Feb 2009
a couple of hours?
even the game gear lasted longer than that didn’t it?
27/08/2011 at 16:33
Member since: Jun 2010
dont know any hardcore pc gamers that use laptops.
27/08/2011 at 17:45
Member since: Feb 2010
I know a few, but it’s a pretty niche market as most prefer desktops.
27/08/2011 at 17:15
Member since: Aug 2011
I don’t think anything is future-proof, to be honest.
27/08/2011 at 18:19
Member since: Jul 2009
This is a strange article, Blair. You seem to have taken an ad so literally that I’m thinking “eh?” most of the way through it. Sure, the specs itself are very decent for a laptop, it’s hugely overpriced, plus a plethora of other things but it’s just marketing; just advertising. You’ve even recognised that but still gone for the literal route.
The headline grabbing line indirectly highlights that the PC gaming industry has been ravaged by piracy and that developers are unwilling to bring titles out on the PC due to such prevalence but it’s still marketing speak, let alone how popular console gaming has become.
Marketing and advertising always promises the Earth and rarely delivers (if ever). Not just that but nothing appears to be future-proof. Not even the Sun above. Most of us recognise that it’s marketing speak for “you’ve bought something that should last you a good while longer than the average product in the same range”.
Outside of my own niggles it’s a crazy price. Truly. It’s for people to show off with and nothing more. Actually, scratch that. I can see a lot of LAN-party gamers (with the money) enjoying something like this. The portability of it being supremely easy compared but we’re still back to “do you not want a decent sized monitor? A full sized keyboard, etc?”. Laptops are compromised from the off. This one doesn’t escape that logic.
You know what? It’s a blog; an opinion. It’s all good. :)
27/08/2011 at 18:40
Member since: May 2009
Thanks for the feedback, Mike.
I just think they’ve got the marketing completely wrong – this isn’t going to bring anyone away from consoles into PC gaming, which they’ve stated is their goal.
Opinion indeed :)
27/08/2011 at 20:08
Member since: Jul 2009
If we look at things logically, having the likes of Steam will bring people back to PC gaming. It’s a great start and platform that the PSN could learn a lot from. I’ve bought some truly wonderful games through it and the sales are often superb. If they can control the content like this then digital distribution can and will work.
27/08/2011 at 18:23
Member since: Mar 2011
I had a “is PC gaming dead” discussion at work today with some friends. We came to the conclusion that PC gaming is phasing out because consoles are getting more and more powerful each generation and at very reasonable prices.
Dont get me wrong im not saying that PS3 games look or play better than top end high powered PCs … they are miles out, but you can now play games in HD very smoothly for a low price.
27/08/2011 at 20:11
Member since: Jan 1970
razer is certainly not capable of saving anything …most less PC gaming
27/08/2011 at 20:58
Member since: Aug 2009
First time I read about this was on Eurogamer and my reaction of the price was simply why cater for the richer? £2000 to me is awful, I don’t know how parents will be persuaded to buy the worlds “first” gaming laptop for Christmas then to buy an 3DS imo.
Looks nice but to me they’ve got it all wrong.
27/08/2011 at 21:27
Member since: Aug 2009
Since when overprices laptops were about gaming anyway? :/
27/08/2011 at 22:29
Member since: Jul 2010
£2000, too expensive seeing as next year it’ll be outdated and worth like £900.
Besides my £1500 MacBook Pro on Windows 7 from 2009 can run ALOT of games at full high settings like COD but for Battlefield I have to use medium/high settings which makes no difference to me on a 15.4″ screen tbh.
Heat is the biggest issue though, it gets wayyy to hot.