Monday, April 22nd 2024
Turtle Beach Dismantles ROCCAT Brand, Carries on Products and Support
The ROCCAT brand is officially reaching the end of its life today, as Turtle Beach has confirmed that ROCCAT will not be a separate brand anymore but rather integrated under the covers of Turtle Beach. Turtle Beach has noted: "We want to bring a greater level of integration to our family of products across console, PC and simulation. We felt that time and resources would be best spent focusing under a single brand and creating a range of products that matter most to gamers." ROCCAT was acquired by Turtle Beach in 2019 for $14.8 million to strengthen the company's positioning in the PC accessories market. At the time, ROCCAT's lineup of gaming keyboards, mice, headsets, and other peripherals complemented Turtle Beach's console-oriented product mix.
In a FAQ posted on its website, Turtle Beach also added: "While we'll be retiring the ROCCAT brand, many of its iconic product lines like the Vulcan, Kone, Burst and Sense will transition under the Turtle Beach brand. Our commitment to PC products remains as strong as ever and we have several ground-breaking new products to introduce as well as Turtle Beach-branded versions of popular existing ROCCAT products sticking around." For product support, the same teams are handling any customer support, and the company has merged them into a single new website, which handles tech and customer questions at support.turtlebeach.com. For returns, the company also takes care of ROCCAT products. The ROCCAT Swarm software will continue to work, even with Swarm II scheduled for a debut this year in Spring. From now on, all products will be under a single brand but will target the same audience. Turtle Beach will also rebrand the social media channels from ROCCAT to Turtle Beach PC. Refer to the FAQ posted on the official company website for more inquiries.
Source:
Turtle Beach FAQ
In a FAQ posted on its website, Turtle Beach also added: "While we'll be retiring the ROCCAT brand, many of its iconic product lines like the Vulcan, Kone, Burst and Sense will transition under the Turtle Beach brand. Our commitment to PC products remains as strong as ever and we have several ground-breaking new products to introduce as well as Turtle Beach-branded versions of popular existing ROCCAT products sticking around." For product support, the same teams are handling any customer support, and the company has merged them into a single new website, which handles tech and customer questions at support.turtlebeach.com. For returns, the company also takes care of ROCCAT products. The ROCCAT Swarm software will continue to work, even with Swarm II scheduled for a debut this year in Spring. From now on, all products will be under a single brand but will target the same audience. Turtle Beach will also rebrand the social media channels from ROCCAT to Turtle Beach PC. Refer to the FAQ posted on the official company website for more inquiries.
34 Comments on Turtle Beach Dismantles ROCCAT Brand, Carries on Products and Support
Turtle Beach (founded in 1975) earned a good reputation for their PC audio products in the Nineties and early 2000s. Then they switched gears and focused on videogame console peripherals, starting with headsets. That's when a lot of people became familiar with them.
So in this latest twist of abandoning the Roccat brand, Turtle Beach is trying to return to their PC roots in some way. Should they have kept the Roccat brand? There are arguments for and against but Roccat basically went into hibernation after the acquisition which doesn't help Turtle Beach's efforts today.
My guess is that key Roccat employees and management left years ago. The best and brightest are always the first to leave as they are the ones with the best opportunities elsewhere.
That ship sailed a LONG time ago.
A more realistic hope is for young people in emerging economies to create a new gaming culture that is less corporate and greedy. But as every company grows there is always more pressure for management to appease shareholders first.
The biggest challenge to that are the videogamers themselves. It is a perpetually immature audience that has very, Very, VERY low standards for quality (that are constantly dropping).
Hell, if you think today's Turtle Beach is a vendor of schlockware, that's the gamer audience's fault. Have problems with Blizzard? Bethesda? Razor? You know who to blame.
Its mostly bullshit and marketing.
The developments dont need gamer sauce. Lots of truly great innovations in keyboards are not gamer oriented, they are enthusiast oriented. DIY PC and gaming crowds might overlap but we can easily lose the gamer sauce imho.
There are lots of just fine peripherals for cheap. If you want better you pay the premium. But on gamer stuff you pay the premium and get budget junk.
EDIT: Somehow forgot to specify the number of years.