At CES 2019, Razer has announced that it has got together with Amazon to bring Alexa support to some of its gaming peripherals.
Alexa support will be delivered to compatible devices via Razer Synapse 3, the company’s cloud-based hardware configuration tool.
The end result will be that gamers will be able to, for example, control their Chroma lighting on Razer mice, keyboards, and other gaming accessories verbally by speaking to Alexa.
The company further noted that Chroma lighting can also be brought to third-party hardware, such as PC cases or motherboards adorned with lights, using the Razer Chroma Connect module, to further expand Alexa’s reach when it comes to controlling your lighting displays.
Bright idea
Furthermore, Razer Synapse users will be able to give commands to Alexa via Razer headsets (or third-party mics) in order to access the digital assistant’s many thousands of skills, or to control the likes of Philips Hue light bulbs or other smart gadgets around the home.
You’ll also be able to tweak things like settings and profiles in Razer hardware – such as the sensitivity level of your gaming mouse, for example – by having a quick word with Amazon’s digital assistant.
“Alexa: change my lighting profile to FPS mode.” “Alexa: decrease my DPI to 200.” “Alexa: shoot that sniper over there.”
That last one may not work, though…
Alexa integration is expected to arrive for Razer Synapse users in the second quarter of 2019, although sadly that will only be for those in the US and Canada. Other countries are expected to get support before the year is out, so there may be a bit of a wait for the wider rollout.
Razer also boasted that its Chroma Connected Devices Program has officially kicked off and has 15 new partners, meaning that there are now over 300 third-party devices which work with Chroma-enabled games and apps.
And yesterday at CES, we also saw Razer reveal its Blade 15 ‘Advanced’ edition which benefits from Nvidia RTX graphics.
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