Turtle Beach Dismantles ROCCAT Brand, Carries on Products and Support

[unbonk]

I really can't understand who makes this type of decisions, so you have a reputable brand name very well recognized in the market it operates, with products people like and with a good reputation, and you just throw in the garbage bin!? What if it was stale the last couple of years, which one will be easier: introduce a new name to a market filled with recognizable names like Razer, Logitech, Glorious, etc. or revive the brand everyone knows and loves?

Fucking morons...

IKR! I have been buying Roccat stuff for a while, it was my first nice keyboard, mouse, basically everything, and they were good quality. Also, like you said, if it's stagnant then just innovate! People (especially the people on Glorious Forums) are sick of Glorious for not making any good products recently or innovating at all, and not many people still like Razer because it's too gamer-y. So there was ample space for improvement compared to other PC brands, especially with mice, which is what Roccat was known for. And who's gonna buy a keyboard from Turtle Beach? I would be embarrassed if the logo on my $200 keyboard was a big palm tree placed right in the middle LOL.

 

[Cr4zy]

Wonder if there will be a spin off company from ex-roccat employees who will keep making their unique style of mouse. The Kone shape is so nice for me and i've got a few Kone Pro Airs, guess i'll be recycling parts out of them for as long as possible. Turtle beach might be a big brand name in America, but outside of it I don't know. I haven't seen a Turtle Beach product in the UK in a long time, not saying Roccat was a brand name but Turtle Beach is not a name that comes up on anyones radar I know when it comes to PC peripherals.

 

[cvaldes]

Wonder if there will be a spin off company from ex-roccat employees who will keep making their unique style of mouse. The Kone shape is so nice for me and i've got a few Kone Pro Airs, guess i'll be recycling parts out of them for as long as possible. Turtle beach might be a big brand name in America, but outside of it I don't know. I haven't seen a Turtle Beach product in the UK in a long time, not saying Roccat was a brand name but Turtle Beach is not a name that comes up on anyones radar I know when it comes to PC peripherals.

It really depends on where you live and how long you've been paying attention to tech hardware.

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.

 

[Minus Infinity]

God I hadn't even realised Turd Beach was still around. Haven't heard that name in forever. Roccat however is a different matter. They really got this ass backwards.

 

[Totally]

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All we can hope is that gaming stops being mainstream and goes back to being a counter-culture or subculture where the creators necessarily didn't care who the audience was or the numbers.

 

[cvaldes]

All we can hope is that gaming stops being mainstream and goes back to being a counter-culture or subculture where the creators necessarily didn't care who the audience was or the numbers.

LOL, that'll never happen now that everyone has a device in their pocket that will play games (i.e., smartphone).

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.

 

[Totally]

LOL, that'll never happen now that everyone has a device in their pocket that will play games (i.e., smartphone).

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.

Hey, can't a guy just hope.

 

[azrael]

I can't say I'm too bothered with fewer 'gamur' brands.

Just good peripherals don't need gaming sauce. In fact, I kinda dread buying anything gamer related. Its generally junk.

The problem is that good peripherals usually aren't made unless they are for people with deep pockets. We certainly wouldn't have seen the resurgence of mechanical keyboards if not for the "g4m0r" crowd. Personally, I wish it weren't so, but it is.

 

[Vayra86]

The problem is that good peripherals usually aren't made unless they are for people with deep pockets. We certainly wouldn't have seen the resurgence of mechanical keyboards if not for the "g4m0r" crowd. Personally, I wish it weren't so, but it is.

Mechanical keyboards.. hehe. They are more prone to maintenance, loud, and you can get a tactile switch from a chiclet kb too. The selling point is supposed to be a faster and more accurate response, we even have higher polling rate BS on mechs now. Its in the same placebo realm as a 360hz screen.

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.

 

[azrael]

Mechanical keyboards.. hehe. They are more prone to maintenance, loud, and you can get a tactile switch from a chiclet kb too. The selling point is supposed to be a faster and more accurate response, we even have higher polling rate BS on mechs now. Its in the same placebo realm as a 360hz screen.

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.

I agree that the usual selling points are pure BS. That said, a mechanical key switch is superior to a membrane, chiclet etc. one. And a mechanical keyboard doesn't have to be loud. Of course, that depends on the switch type and also how the keyboard itself is constructed. To be fair, I did have a membrane keyboard that lasted close to 20 years. However, build quality like that seems impossible to find these days.

EDIT: Somehow forgot to specify the number of years.