Welp Razer and Verizon hop on the cloud, it would appear Logitech isn’t the only one chasing after the game streaming market with dedicated handheld hardware, and so Razer and Verizon have just announced that the two companies have partnered to bring the Razer Edge 5G to market. This is a device built for high-performance gaming, sporting a Snapdragon G3X Gen 1, Qualcomm‘s latest gaming platform. So it would appear that not only are Razer and Verizon looking to eat Logitech’s lunch with a much more powerful device than the yet-to-be-launched G Cloud, but since Verizon is involved, you can expect access to 5G Ultra Wideband to ensure the handheld is truly portable.
As you can see in the recent tweet from Verizon’s public relations manager, the Razer Edge 5G is very real, officially announced on Verizon’s website (also linked in the tweet). While it’s still early days with little known about this Razer device beyond a blurb on Verizon’s site, today’s announcement makes clear that Razer will be sharing further details at Razercon, a convention that will take place on October 15. So there’s more news to come next month.
So yes, it’s quite evident that game streaming is the new bandwagon for hardware manufacturers to jump onto. While it’s definitely nice to see a revival for handhelds in the form of streaming devices Netflix is opening its own video game studio, game streaming still has a ways to go to offer the reliability and quality of local games, so it’s anyone’s guess how much interest there actually is for gamers to jump on devices like the Razer Edge 5G. Sure, the Snapdragon chip ensures local Android games should be plenty playable, but streaming is clearly the focus. Still, in order for the tech to improve, the first generation has to come to fruition, which means we are well on our way to a future where game streaming may actually exist as a viable alternative to high-end consoles and gaming PCs.