Razer’s game store is on death row: closes at the end of February
Having run out of Steam…
Razer is closing down its game store effective at the end of February, meaning there will very soon be one less option for your digital PC game purchases.
The store, which only opened last April, will cease operation at 1am PT (9am UK time) on February 28, 2019, in a move that is described as “part of the company’s realignment plans”.
There’s a full FAQ on the website for those who want to know more about the closure, but Razer made it clear that any pre-orders will still be fulfilled, and purchased games will work perfectly fine after the store is shut down.
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The company does note that if you’ve made purchases, but haven’t yet activated the likes of Steam or Uplay keys, you should retrieve them from the game store before February 28. Razer added: “Your game keys have been sent to your email upon purchase, so you'll still be able to retrieve them in the future.”
If you have outstanding discount codes from Razer, then you’ll want to use them up before the deadline as well.
Customer support will still be available via email after the end of February, for those who run into any trouble with games that they’ve bought for whatever reason. Presumably that won’t remain the case forever, although the company didn’t mention any timeframe for cessation of support.
Golden opportunities
For those who have accrued Razer Gold – the firm’s virtual currency – to buy titles on the Razer Game Store, the firm notes that you can still buy games online using your Gold, and you can check out your other options via the Razer Gold Game Catalog.
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Razer also noted: “We will be investing in other ways to deliver great content and introduce game promotions through Razer Gold.”
Razer’s store was focused on reselling activation keys for Steam, or game publisher’s stores such as Origin or Uplay. However, it did – and still does for the next couple of weeks – offer a number of compelling bargains (and deals via the aforementioned discount codes which you could receive after making purchases).
For example, right now, you can pick up Far Cry 4 with a 60% reduction from its asking price on Steam; not too shabby.
So while some folks may not have even been aware that Razer had a game store, there are doubtless those out there who will miss these sort of deals – and being able to knock further money off using discount codes.
And overall, it’s one less option on the table when it comes to digital game purchases, as we mentioned at the outset – less choice never being a good thing.
Steam isn’t the only player in town by any means, though, and if you’re wondering what else there is aside from Valve’s mammoth gaming platform, then check out our best Steam alternatives for PC gamers.
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Via Eurogamer
Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).