Razer Enhances Its Aural Pleasure With THX Acquisition, Eyes Push Into Virtual And Augmented Reality
It seems like only yesterday that Disney snatched up Lucasfilm for just over $4 billion, and now, we have yet another George Lucas-created enterprise finding a place under a different wing: THX.
THX was founded 33 years ago in an attempt to deliver the best possible sound quality for the upcoming George Lucas film, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. It remained under Lucasfilm's umbrella until 2002, at which point it was picked up by another legendary audio company: Creative. Fast-forward to today, and the brand has changed hands again, to peripheral giant Razer.
One of Razer's latest audio products, Kraken Pro V2 headset
While Razer offers products at a variety of price ranges - including modest ones - the company has always been keen on offering the highest quality features possible, and that of course includes audio. Way back in 2008, the company proved that it was serious about audio with the release of a 2.1 speaker set called Mako. To those who heard it... it was hard to not be impressed, but it did carry a price tag to justify its performance.
Since Mako's release, Razer has released numerous headsets, as well as a variety of other products (even notebooks), so it's clear that the company is keen on broadening its horizons. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Razer eyes using THX in certification programs for headphones and even future augmented and virtual reality products.
Razer's co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan doesn't add too much outside of what's expected: "This acquisition will allow us to reinforce Razer's leadership in gaming and extend the brand into broader areas of entertainment, while at the same time empowering THX to develop into a global powerhouse, independently."
Time will tell what will become of this. For many, it seems like an out-of-nowhere acquisition, but Razer typically doesn't do anything hastily, so the future could be very interesting for the lean green peripheral-creating machine.
