Razer has announced that the company will be shutting down the Razer Game Store on February 28, 2019 at 1am PT (4am ET), giving users a few weeks to redeem their outstanding game keys before the shut down, according to the announcement on the official site for the digital distribution division.
Razer launched the product to help monetize their new foray into digital currency, Razer Gold. Razer cites “company’s realignment plans,” as a primary motivation for the shut down. They promise that the company will be “investing in other ways to deliver great content and introduce game promotions through Razer Gold,” although plans and specifics have not been revealed about said future goals or products.
First launched in 2017, Razer zGold and Razer zSilver went through several changes, including name switches and different redemption programs, before landing with the Game Store in April 2018. The digital currency offerings even experimented with a program to allow gamers to mine currency for the service, although this “play to earn” scheme was shuttered a few months later.
The original idea was to use the proprietary service to offer gamers exclusive discounts and even free games with a simple and easy-to-use currency that could be easily bought using any local currency, making exchange rates less bothersome, at least in theory. Obviously, trying to sell games directly with the Gold currency hasn’t worked, as the store only lasted about 10 months. And the added competition of Steam, Uplay and Epic Games Store probably didn’t help. And even when the latter of those stirred up mass controversy, games still didn’t flock to Razer.
Razer Gold and Silver can still be used to redeem for games on Razerother services, so you can still spend the currency you’ve bought or accrued after the closure. Along with the shutdown, the company assures gamers that they will retain any purchased games as long as they are redeemed before the end of the month.
Source: Razer Game Store
