The co-founder of technology company Razer and pioneer of the gaming mouse, Robert Krakoff, passed away on April 26, 2022. The cause of death has not been revealed, but seems to have been related to old age. Krakoff was 81 years old at his time of death. Krakoff is survived by his wife Patsi and two children, Scott and Robin. The entrepreneur and businessman currently has five grandchildren.
The news comes directly from Razer. The official account for the company on Twitter made the announcement of his death on April 28. "We are saddened by the passing of Co-Founder and President Emeritus Robert Krakoff, known by everyone as RazerGuy," the company said. "Robert’s unwavering drive and passion for gaming lives on and continues to inspire all of us. Thank you, Rob. You will be missed."
Krakoff was one of the key figures behind what came to be known as the gaming mouse. The designer and engineer worked for a company called Kärna back in 1999 which made an "opto-mechanical encoding wheel that could track a mouse’s movements at 2000 dpi, far higher resolution than other mice at the time." This technology went on to become the first ever gaming mouse known as the Razer Boomslang.
Kärna went bust as a company in 2001, but rather than go down with the ship, Krakoff teamed up with a marketing agency called Fitch that helped him found Razer in 2005 alongside its current chief executive officer, Min-Lian Tan. Fitch developed the name, logo, website, packaging, and contributed to the overall design of the Razer Boomslang.
Krakoff went on to become the public face of Razer, adding tips and advice from RazerGuy to the packaging of numerous products. He was known for offering jobs to many of his most ardent fans.
The gaming community has been expressing its regret over the news. Replies to the announcement by Razer include “truly a lost legend” and “gaming4ever, rest in eternal peace.”
Krakoff will surely be missed by the gamer going by the name of Enough_Dance_956 on Reddit who happened to be wearing a Razer Kraken headset in their Torrance, California home when a stray bullet blasted through a window, striking them in the head. Enough_Dance_956 would surely have been killed if not for the headset which deflected the bullet. “If it wasn't for the headphones made with good quality, I would've been a dead kid at the age of 18. I couldn't even imagine all the pain my family and friends would've been through," Enough_Dance_956 said. The gamer added that “I'm very lucky to be alive. If I moved an inch forward or back, I would've been dead.”