The COUCHMASTER story is an interesting one since it is an underdog story of two guys working out of a garage and spending money rather than making it. As it stands today, there is enough of a market to get resellers across the world and to also have multiple versions as well. With the COUCHMASTER cycon, nerdytec has opted to meet the needs of the PC gamer who wants the best of both worlds - someone who games comfortably on a large display while still not wanting to sacrifice performance or visual fidelity. This all comes at a cost, and perhaps the target customer here is one who can also go about purchasing one of these without batting an eye. Indeed, take off the lapboard (perhaps under the couch for a stowaway), and you get two cushions for regular use on the couch as well when not using the setup.

I had heard of the COUCHMASTER a few years ago when PC gaming was still mostly confined to a desk, and I had no interest in it at the time. With GPUs supporting HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2, and some fantastic 4K TVs as well that came out in the past two years, I find myself working and gaming on my living-room PC a lot more lately. The COUCHMASTER cycon has been very comfortable to use here, and I definitely appreciated the support for wired input since it allowed me to use the keyboard and mouse of my choice rather than having to rely on wireless devices that have either limited options in switch type, suffer from inconsistent battery life, or randomly lag when I certainly don't want them to. This means having to deal with a long cable snaking across the room, but an active cable means nearly everyone can get away without a second cable for power. If you so desire, you can buy a second cable to give you an additional five meters to work with without sacrificing any power or data throughput.

But for those who do need the extra power, it is an extra purchase on top of the $150 that is getting harder to justify when you see competing products, including the Roccat Sova MK, come in at the same price with a keyboard included. The bundled mousepad is also okay but nothing special, and it's a good thing they did not increase the cost of the product when it was added to the bundle. As a passive product, this is lower on the priority list for many, including myself. So let me get right to it - the COUCHMASTER cycon, thanks to the passive nature of the product with the wired input support and cable management built in, is a product you should buy with the long term in mind. Peripherals will be replaced eventually, and those built into a similar product going bad means having to replace the whole thing. I look at this cost as more of one to increase the experience of couch gaming positively, and so should you. But go spend your money on more critical items towards making this experience possible in the first place.