In case you purchase Razer’s insane $1337 mouse, I might be very disenchanted in you

I keep in mind the primary time I purchased a Razer mouse. Contained in the field was a letter printed on fancy vellum paper. It opened with, “Welcome to the cult of Razer.” It seems that this isn’t only a cheeky advertising and marketing slogan, Razer means it genuinely. As a result of solely brainwashed cult members would pay $1337 for a mouse.

Razer introduced its twentieth Anniversary Boomslang mouse a few months in the past. The design crams all the trendy tech of probably the most superior mice in the marketplace right into a throwback case with a retro-inspired clear physique and a few fake leather-based accents. On the announcement, which didn’t include a worth, I predicted it could be excessive. It’s a “restricted version,” in spite of everything. However I used to be pondering $250, perhaps $300 if Razer is basically excessive by itself provide.

Nope. This mouse prices $1337. Ha ha, l33t communicate get it?

I gained’t go over the brand new Boomslang’s specs. I already did that when it was introduced. Suffice it to say it’s a pleasant mouse on the technical facet, although its intentional throwback ergonomics gained’t be to everybody’s style. And I can see why limiting it to a small manufacturing would assist it really feel particular. To actually promote the exclusivity it comes with a show body that exhibits off the mouse’s parts, apparently minus the battery. You additionally get a wi-fi charging pad and glass mouse toes in the event you desire them.

However that’s so far as I can go for both-sides platitudes. That is absolute nonsense.

Razer in all probability has the very best profile amongst PC gaming peripheral makers, because of many years of sharp advertising and marketing. It’s sort of the Apple of the PC gaming {hardware} world in that regard, for higher and worse. And the corporate isn’t afraid to push the bounds of each worth and style with its pricing. Its most costly, non-limited-edition mouse proper now’s $180. That’s not the costliest gaming mouse in the marketplace…besides, it’s too rattling a lot to pay for a mouse.

This restricted version promo is past the pale. PC players are getting fleeced and gouged for {hardware} by an business that has all however deserted customers to chase “AI” cash each actual and imagined. And Razer is becoming a member of them, making an attempt to promote “AI” within the type of an anime waifu in a glass jar, powered by xAI’s sexual assault generator Grok. At CES 2026, I requested Razer representatives in the event that they had been nervous in regards to the questions of safety of placing a speaking, animated avatar of a system that’s been identified to ship folks into psychological well being spirals right into a gaming accent. They dodged, saying such considerations had been the duty of the “AI” mannequin’s creators.

I made a decision to not write about Venture Ava after I noticed it at CES. Considerably out of skepticism that it’ll grow to be an actual product, regardless of Razer’s assurances that it’s going to. However principally as a result of I discover it distasteful in each sense, each as a PC gamer — I don’t want a cartoon’s assist to inform me how you can play, I can use a browser to lookup sport guides — and as a human being.

On prime of all that, Razer appears to be attempting to find client “whales,” in the identical approach that freemium gacha mechanics do. The corporate has made a mouse with such a ridiculous price ticket that I can solely assume it has a 90 % revenue margin, simply to see how far it will possibly push players who’re all-in on an elite branding as empty as its polyurethane “leather-based.”

It’s, in a phrase, repugnant. In a extra accessible phrase, it’s grasping. In a extra all-encompassing and completely applicable phrase, the Razer Boomslang twentieth Anniversary Version is bullshit.

Razer is taking pre-orders for the mouse in 4 days. In case you purchase one, and I need you to think about this in probably the most overbearing and judgmental dad voice attainable, I might be very disenchanted in you.