Michael Crider
Razer, bombastic maker of gaming accessories and proselytizer of RGB lighting, has found a new priority. CEO Min-Liang Tan took to Twitter to announce that the company is shifting some of its manufacturing lines to help make and donate surgical masks, assisting with the still-evolving coronavirus outbreak and treatment of patients with COVID-19.
Tan’s tweet announcing the program is below. He said that Razer intends to donate up to a million masks to health authorities around the world, beginning with Singapore, where the company’s Asian headquarters are based. He added that other helpful efforts will follow.
Over the past few days, our designers and engineers have been working 24-hour shifts to convert some of our existing manufacturing lines to produce surgical masks so that we can donate them to countries around the world.
— Min-Liang Tan (@minliangtan) March 19, 2020
It makes sense. A huge portion of the planet is de-emphasizing non-essential manufacturing, like, say, super-fancy gaming mice and keyboards, as emergency medical equipment and basic essentials run short. Just today Amazon announced that it was focusing its logistics on essentials, causing understandable delays in orders of recent video games.
While Razer isn’t exactly set up to convert its entire manufacturing line to medical supplies, the company still uses quite a lot of paper and textiles in various products and packaging. This display of altruism is a fantastic example. You might call it a pro gamer move.
