Razer stole the show at CES 2017 and had attendees in awe with its gorgeous Project Valerie and other ambitious concepts, but it apparently raised more interest than it bargained for.
As it turns out, someone found Razer's latest gadgets so exciting and decided to steal them right from the company's CES booth. More specifically, someone stole two Razer prototypes from the show, but it remains unclear for now just which concepts we're talking about.
Razer is not a regular household brand making standard PCs and gear, but it's immensely popular with gamers. The company is famous for its high-end, expensive hardware such as laptops, keyboards and gaming mice, as well as ambitious, albeit odd prototypes like the Project Valerie laptop showcased at CES 2017.
Two Razer Prototypes Stolen At CES
Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan took to Facebook over the weekend to announce that two of the company's prototypes were stolen from its CES booth, but did not detail which prototypes.
Razer made waves at the show with two impressive prototypes — the Project Valerie triple 4K display laptop and the Project Ariana 4K projector — but it remains unconfirmed whether these were the ones stolen.
Tan says that Razer has already filed reports and it's currently working with law enforcement and the CES management to solve the matter. The CEO highlights that Razer works hard and plays fair — its teams put a great deal of work and spent months conceptualizing and developing the prototypes — and this incident will not be tolerated.
Industrial Espionage?
"We treat theft/larceny, and if relevant to this case, industrial espionage, very seriously - it is cheating, and cheating doesn't sit well with us," says the CEO. "Penalties for such crimes are grievous and anyone who would do this clearly isn't very smart."
The mention of industrial espionage indicates that Razer is not ruling out the possibility of someone working for a competitor snatching the prototypes to spy on its progress and technology. It remains unclear whether this is just a possibility that hasn't been ruled out yet, or whether Razer and/or authorities already have a reason to believe it may be industrial espionage.
To help figure things out and address the issue, Razer is asking anyone who may have some information on the matter to contact its legal team to help the investigation.
Razer is expected to offer more details at a later date, once the investigation wraps up and the police find the culprits responsible for this shocking surprise.
This is not the first time that Razer falls victim to theft. Back in 2011, two Razer laptop prototypes were stolen from a company office in San Francisco. An investigation was launched in that case as well and it turned out that the stolen goods were early prototypes of the Razer Blade gaming laptop.
If the two prototypes stolen from Razer's CES 2017 booth were the cutting-edge Project Valerie and Project Ariana showcased at the show, it remains to be seen whether they will ever hit the market following the theft.
