In early 2017, Razer purchased Nextbit, a startup that made smartphones. Sure enough, the PC gaming hardware manufacturer wanted to get into the brand new gaming smartphone category, and the Razer Phone arrived later that year. It was followed a year later by the Razer Phone 2, and the bad news is that there might not be a Razer Phone 3.
Droidlife is reporting that it received an anonymous tip that the project had been canceled and that various hardware and software engineers from the mobile division were laid off. Razer responded to its request for comment with the following statement:
"Razer has made changes to realign our organization and strengthen our path to growth. We will centralize our resources to focus on key projects and improve our profitability. As part of the realignment, we shut down several projects and unfortunately had to part ways with about 30 employees (about 2% of our total workforce). Other employees of the affected projects will be moved to different parts of Razer to work on other key focus projects and initiatives which will continue to scale and hire."
While the statement doesn't officially confirm or deny the tip, it's still a response to a question about whether the Razer Phone 3 is canceled, so it seems likely that we won't see the device in the real world.
Mobile gaming is a $76 billion a year business, and it makes sense that a gaming company like Razer would want to be among the first on-board for dedicated hardware. The Razer Phone lineup was known for its displays that had a 120Hz refresh rate, and the second model added things like Chroma lighting.
5 Comments - Add comment