Game hardware maker 
Razer is announcing today that it is developing a line of peripheral devices such as mice or keyboards for fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the online multiplayer universe coming from Electronic Arts’ BioWare division.
By itself, that’s not a huge market. The Star Wars game is launching sometime this year and not every fan is going to see the need to buy peripherals to go with it. But Razer says it is making a fine business out of catering to the fanatics of the game industry. And peripherals remain one of the strongest parts of the video game business, generating hundreds of millions of dollars each month in the U.S.
Market researcher NPD says that peripherals sold $147.6 million in the month of April, up 20 percent from $123.5 million a year earlier.
One of the first products Razer will offer for Star Wars: The Old Republic is the Gaming Keyboard, with a multitouch liquid crystal display panel with a row of tactile keys above that can be used as hot keys or macros. Those keys are new for Razer products and will be available for the first time on the Star Wars product line. Other products include a 12-button thumb grid wireless gaming mouse and a 5.1 surround sound head set. The keyboard can be converted from alpha-numeric to the Aurebesh language from Star Wars. It sells for $199. That’s insane.
Razer will release the line of peripherals whenever the game debuts and will be an official licensee of LucasArts, the video game business owned by Star Wars maker George Lucas. The licensed products are just a few of many customized game devices that Razer is launching this year.
The Carlsbad, Calif.-based company says it focuses on creating fan-based peripherals because gamers like the customization and will opt for any device that helps them get an edge in a game, like a 12-button mouse that they can use to make things happen faster in Star Wars: The Old Republic. And if Razer makes custom game devices to go with a lot of the blockbuster games, it stands a chance of selling devices to the same gamers over and over again. In other words, the company is not targeting normal gamers. It’s targeting extreme fans. If the normal gamers want to buy the stuff too, all the better.
Ben Hsieh, director of marketing for Razer in the Americas, said in an interview that any single game may not add up a huge market for Razer products. But the company wants gamers to know that it is just as passionate about games as they are, as part of its brand image.
It works for Razer, which has been making peripherals since 1998. The company has 450,000 fans on its Facebook page.
Razer is still developing a Switchblade tablet computer aimed at game fans for sometime later this year. It also released the motion-sensing Hydra game controllers based on technology from Sixense. The Hydra is bundled with Valve’s Portal 2 game for the PC.
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