The Razer Games Store Closes After 10 Months

TheGamer

The Razer Games Store, Which Offered Hardware Discounts Alongside Steam Keys, Closes After 10 Months

By Helen Ashcroft

Published Feb 19, 2019

The Razer Games Store hasn't even been around for a year, but it announced that it will be closing at the end of February.

via: Razer

Peripherals firm Razer has announced that after just 10 months of trading, it is closing its digital games store.

Razer hasn’t disclosed any information that gives us a clue as to its success or otherwise. Instead the firm cited “the company’s realignment plans” as the reason for the shutdown.

The store originally went live in April of 2018, less than a year ago, and currently displays as in Beta. It sells a mix of Steam and uPlay keys. Alongside offering some exclusive deals, it also offers a reward system which allows you to collect “Razer Silver” and trade it for discounts on peripherals.

Razer has said that the store will close on February 28, 2019 at 1:00 AM Pacific Time.

All games purchased from the Razer store will still work after the shutdown, although customers have been advised to redeem any purchased keys before this date. All pre-orders will also be honored.

In its statement, Razer said “It has been a privilege for us to recommend and deliver great digital game deals to you. We have been extremely fortunate to have you as part of our awesome community. Thank you for the support and making all this possible.”

The statement also mentions the possibility of game rewards continuing through the Razer Gold and Silver rewards program, which appears to be continuing.

It remains to be seen how the PC market place evolves over the next year but it’s certainly an exciting time. While Razer have decided to refocus its efforts elsewhere, many other companies have been pushing further into digital distribution.

Currently Steam is the leader of the market, with over 150 million users. It was established 15 years ago by Valve, who have developed its services over this time to become the largest digital distribution platform for PC gaming.

Over the last year several companies have released competing gaming stores, hoping to pick up a slice of Steam’s market share. They include Discord, Kongregate and Epic Games.

While these stores are still new, Epic Games in particular has been making some waves in the market, with an exclusive distribution deal for Metro Exodus.

It remains to be seen if any of these stores can offer a genuine alternative to Steam, but one thing’s for sure, the digital marketplace is changing.