Razer to Include Offline Mode for Synapse 2.0

The pressure is on. Razer is now getting a lot of heat for their DRM mouse drivers. Wait, DRM on a mouse!? Yes, you read that correctly. Razer products that utilize Synapse 2.0 drivers require activation before obtaining access to the software’s features.

Furthermore, the mouse is also tied to that particular account the user creates. Now to clarify there is an offline mode after the user creates an account. So, why the big deal then? Why not just have the user make an account. Well here’s where the frustration starts for gamers.

Apparently during hurricane Sandy the activation servers went down. This means that individuals could not use their expensive mouse with all of the features. Instead gamers had to deal with using it as a plug and play mouse. This means certain aspects like adjusting the dpi and programing various buttons could not be preformed since gamers did not have access to their driver software period.

Unfortunately, the story does not end there, and it gets much worse. There are reports that according to the TOS and various other gamers that Razer is data mining PCs that are using the software. This means that they are collecting information about you while you are online and using the software.

Recently an Uproar over at the overclock.net forums has had such an impact that it triggered a response from Razer directly on their website.

The only data that’s being collected is your name, email, and user settings. You can even use a fake name and email address, it’s only so we can link your settings back to your product(s).

The CEO of Razer, Min-Liang Tan, also chimed in against claims that the software is DRM

Synapse 2.0 is NOT DRM. Our products work perfectly well out of the box without Synapse 2.0.

Furthermore, they have now started work on a true offline mode that doesn’t seem to require an account, which you can check out below:

However, this response hasn’t seemed to calm down everyone. Gamers still feel that the TOS response is vague and data mining worries combined with damage to their reputation is still moving forward.

Oddly enough the whole reason Razer implemented this cloud software was to combat rising memory prices.

…we realized that we ran into another issue where we had to keep increasing the amount of memory onboard to provide for more storage and this resulted in higher and higher prices for gamers.

We then invented Synapse 2.0 where we could provide almost limitless amount of storage for profiles, macros, etc in the cloud as opposed to being limited by physical memory.

However, memory is getting cheaper, you don’t need a lot of it to store mouse settings, and most of the mice that are using this software are expensively hovering around the $80+ mark. No doubt this is some dark times for the company and hopefully they will eventually see the light once again, but first they seriously need to address some of these pressing issues with their software.