Razer shutters its online game store less than a year after its launch

Just ten months after its debut, Razer is closing down its game store. A statement on its game store website attributes the closure on February 28th, 2019, to the company’s "realignment plans".

"We regret to announce that Razer Game Store will cease operations on February 28, 2019, at 0100hrs Pacific Time as part of the company’s realignment plans," the brief statement 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.

"We will be investing in other ways to deliver great content and introduce game promotions through Razer Gold, our virtual credits system."

Gift vouchers will remain valid until their expiry date, but Razer discount codes need to be redeemed before the store shutters. Customer support will reportedly remain active for existing customers – although it doesn’t specify for how long the service will be available – and all pre-orders will be fulfilled.

"All purchased games will still work even after the closure. In case you haven’t activated your Steam or Uplay keys yet, make sure to retrieve them before February 28 from the Razer Game Store," states the FAQ. "Your game keys have been sent to your email upon purchase, so you’ll still be able to retrieve them in the future."

The statement does not detail with the realignment plans result in the store’s closure, but the recent launch of Epic Games’ new store was arguably the biggest industry news of 2018 as the Fortnite and Unreal Engine developer took on Steam in what may be the biggest shake-up of the PC games market since Valve’s platform launched back in 2003. Ubisoft is the latest company to move away from Steam and announce a partnership with Epic to bring its titles to the new Epic Games Store. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, which launches on March 15th, will be the first Ubisoft title to release on the Epic Games Store, with pre-orders already available on the platform.

"While running Fortnite we learned a lot about the cost of running a digital store on PC. The math is quite simple: we pay around 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent for payment processing for major payment methods, less than 1.5 per cent for CDN costs (assuming all games are updated as often as Fortnite), and between 1 and 2 per cent for variable operating and customer support costs," Sweeney told MCV at the time the store launched.

"Fixed costs of developing and supporting the platform become negligible at a large scale. In our analysis, stores charging 30 per cent are marking up their costs by 300 to 400 per cent," he revealed. "But with developers receiving 88 per cent of revenue and Epic receiving 12 per cent, this store will still be a profitable business for us."