Although we'd heard about the World of Warcraft mouse as early as a month ago, there weren't much details about the reportedly $100 mouse and what made it so remarkably expensive. But tipster Marco wrote in today to point us in the direction of the new SteelSeries World of Warcraft mouse designed exclusively for the game. Although I recently bought a new Razer hoping to improve my PvP, this steeply priced gadget looks so remarkably, temptingly sweet that I just might pre-order one today.

Aside from the unique form factor and slick brushed metal enclosure, the $99.99 price tag will give players the ability to make macros with up to 160 characters, a whopping total of fifteen (oh man!) programmable buttons, the ability to drag-and-drop macros, and -- get this -- 16 million illumination choices with 3 intensity and pulsation levels. I have absolutely no idea what that last part means, but it sounds pretty wicked. Probably unnecessary and overboard, but wicked nonetheless.

The mouse, the first ever designed purely for playing World of Warcraft, promises to be beneficial to all players regardless of style or level of play. [CLARIFICATION: It probably works for other applications or games, but it's the first mouse designed from the ground up specifically for playing WoW] Looking like the bastard love child of a Worn Turtle Shield and Tim Burton's cocooned 1989 Batmobile, the mouse will start shipping on November 13 -- around the same time as some sort of game expansion, I think. It's all pretty cool, and I'm just about sold despite the stupefying price tag... I've just got one question: will it work on a Mac?

Tags: hardware, mouse, peripherals, SteelSeries

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Hardware