Video game products maker Razer Inc. is building up its Irvine office after announcing the closure of its San Francisco outpost and making the Orange County spot its domestic headquarters.
“Orange County and Irvine, specifically, have a great background and a great history of consumer electronics, and an incredible labor force for consumer electronics and less turnover than the Bay Area,” Razer Americas chief Bob Ohlweiler told the Business Journal.
Razer’s products include laptops, keyboards, earbuds and mouse units for gamers, as well as software for gamers and esports aficionados. The company pulled in $357.2 million in revenue in the first half of 2019.
The company announced four new products at the CES technology show in Las Vegas earlier this month, including the Kishi gaming controller and the Tomahawk gaming desktop. The company received two “Best of CES” awards for Kishi.
More is on the way in Irvine, company officials said. “We will be adding people and growing the organization over time,” Ohlweiler said.
Irvine, Singapore
The Irvine office at 9 Pasteur off Laguna Canyon Road employs about 100 people and will be one of a pair of “dual headquarters” for Razer, along with Singapore.
The company’s shares are traded on Hong Kong’s stock exchange, and it counts a roughly $1.6 billion market valuation.
The company—known for its triple-headed, green-outlined snake logo—said it foresees a “larger campus” locally and ultimately will have to look for a new building. 
For now, Razer says it’s expanding in the current location, which opened in 2015.
“We originally moved to Irvine because of the proximity to other video game companies like Blizzard,” said Ohlweiler, vice president of sales and marketing and general manager of Razer Americas. “We felt that we could draw the right talent and get world-class talent here.”Â
Blizzard Entertainment is Orange County’s largest software company, with a reported 2,800 local employees.
70M Users
Razer’s software platform has more than 70 million users, and includes Razer Synapse, Razer Chroma and Razer Cortex.
The company said it has built the world’s largest gamer-focused ecosystem of hardware, software and services, including Blade gaming laptops.
The San Francisco office will close on Feb. 29, laying off 19 people. Some of them have been offered relocation to the company’s other offices.Â
“Some of those positions are no longer needed, but some of the positions are going to be replaced in Irvine,” said Ohlweiler, who is based in Irvine. “All of the growth that we have in the organization is really going to come in Irvine.” He said he’s been asked to prepare for a “solid growing presence.”
Market Leader
“If you want to be a market leader like Razer is, you have to tap into the best people in the industry and a lot of those people are in Irvine,” according to Ohlweiler.
The company said earlier this month the consolidation of the U.S. operations will let it “focus on investing in a single office on the West Coast.”
Founder and Chief Executive Min-Liang Tan is based in the Singapore office.
OC’s Gaming Expansion
Razer’s move buttresses Orange County’s role “as an epicenter and leading hub for dynamic esports companies,” said Mark Thimmig, chief executive of Irvine’s Esportz Entertainment Corp. “With over 400 esports related companies within a 65-mile radius, we recognized this unique and timely opportunity, which drove the creation of Esportz Network.”
