Posts with tag accessories

We've heard before about World of Warcraft strutting up the PC gaming market before, but could this game also be holding up the PC game accessories market? Seems that way for Steelseries -- they're the makers of the WoW mouse that we've mentioned (the one that might not be quite kosher with Blizzard's Terms of Service, use with caution). They've just recently inked a deal with Best Buy to carry some of their products (including the WoW mouse), and World of Warcraft played so much of a part in the deal that CEO Bruce Hawver credited Blizzard's MMO with creating his "high-quality gamers": "The way I used to pick up the phone after school, now, kids log into World of Warcraft and chat... Online gaming might cost $14 to $18 a month – less than a single movie visit for two people."

It does follow -- if WoW is one of the only reasons left for people to spend money on PC games, it does seem that it would be one of the only reasons for them to spend money on gaming accessories. High-end mice and keyboards use to be the domain of the FPS player -- guys like Fata1ity pimped their own lines and all the mice bragged about their resolution and ease of use. But the PC market has changed, and MMOs are the game of the day now -- everything is about squeezing function into as many buttons as possible and reaching this 11 million player group roaming around Azeroth. If Steelseries and other accessory manufacturers want to sell their products, they've got to try and sell them to us.

Our friend Drayner over at twinkinfo.com sends word of a brand new Logitech "gameboard" (keyboard extension?), called the G13. It actually looks really cool -- it's got the G15's screen, but it's actually an extra set of 22 keys that you can control outside of your normal keyboard. And plus, the keys are all backlit (with hundreds of available colors), and it even has an analog thumbstick on there for extra-precise movement. World of Warcraft gets mentioned not once but twice in the press release, and they say that it comes with support for "Burning Crusade," which we would assume also means Wrath of the Lich King as well.

Pretty groovy. It works with both Windows and OS X, and it'll set you back a tidy $80, which seems like a lot for a "gameboard," but then again, if this is the kind of thing you play WoW enough to actually make good use of, you've probably got a way to justify the purchase anyway (and if anyone's looking for a gift for me this year...). Anyone intersted in replacing their Nostromo with this one?

Those crazy lads over at Joystiq have made a journey too perilous for us here at WoW Insider to even imagine. They braved the parking lots, dodged the teenagers, somehow avoided the tackiness, and reached a dungeon even scarier and harder than Naxx. Yes, they went to their local mall's Hot Topic.

And surprisingly, they found WoW. A lot of it. There's buttons, stickers, t-shirts, hoodies, even hats-- all the stuff that Blizzard has been selling through J!NX online. You know the game has made it when the junk gift store down at the mall is selling your officially licensed crap accessories. That said, those hats are pretty awesome. I'd love one of the exclamation point ones. Just dream of what you could make people do for you in that thing.

And as Joystiq found, Hot Topic is not only selling the gear, they're selling the game, too-- in the form of a $1.99 two week trial disc. It's a pretty nerfed trial, though. Not only is the full purchase of the game required later (along with that monthly fee), but apparently there are restrictions in game-- no trading items, no auctioneering. But then again, Blizzard didn't hit seven million players by not giving people ways to find the game for the first time. And the fact that Hot Topic is selling stuff that references WoW gives you an idea of just how popular this game has gotten.