Monday 9 January 2017

A gaming company known for wild hardware concepts says two new prototypes were stolen in Las Vegas last week

Razer isn't a household name, but it's wildly popular with gamers. The company is notorious for making very nice, very expensive hardware: Mice, keyboards, and laptops are its primary products. 

But Razer is also notorious for bizarre prototypes, like "Project Valerie" right here:

Project Valerie

And this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Razer says two prototypes were stolen from its booth.

"I've just been informed that two of our prototypes were stolen from our booth at CES today," Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan wrote on Facebook over the weekend.

It's unclear which prototypes he's speaking about, but Razer showed off two new prototypes at the show this year: Project Valerie (seen above) and Project Ariana, a projection/camera system for making video games impact the real world around your screen.

Project Ariana

Razer says it has "filed the necessary reports" and is "working with the show management as well as law enforcement to address this issue"; Tan doesn't rule out "industrial espionage," though it's not clear if there's any reason to believe that is the case here. Razer asks anyone with information to contact its legal team.

Razer has a long history of showcasing prototypes. It's an annual tradition at this point: Every year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Razer debuts a bizarre prototype that may or may not become an actual product.

For instance: In 2012, Razer showcased a hybrid tablet/laptop that could be used as a (massive) handheld game console — it was called Project Fiona. Fans responded so positively to Project Fiona that it became a product by 2013, dubbed the "Razer Edge":

Project Fiona/Razer Edge

Subsequent prototypes haven't been quite as successful. A modular computer named "Project Christine" disappeared into the ether, despite being well-received.

It's not clear if Project Valerie and Project Ariana were the targets in this theft; Tan only said that two prototypes were stolen, not which prototypes were stolen. We reached out to Razer for comment but haven't heard back as of publishing.

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