2022 has arrived, looking back at the past year, the game peripherals market is also quietly changing, Logitech, Razer and other brands have not stopped, although the impact of the epidemic in 2020 led to a significant decline in the frequency of new product releases in 2021, but in 2022, we should be able to see the major manufacturers hold back for a year of big moves.
In the field of game peripherals, although there is no shortage of challengers for domestic brands, the mainstream brands are still Logitech, Razer, Cyrui, and even some PC hardware manufacturers such as Asus, Pirate Ship, etc. have begun to deepen the game peripheral market, with their own PC hardware ecology to drive the development of peripheral business, and have also made good progress.
With the increase of gamers and the increase in players' requirements for peripherals, game peripherals are also facing many challenges, how to play their own set of combination punches in the case of homogenization of performance and function, in order to occupy more markets, will be the most important problem for game peripheral manufacturers this year. Therefore, in Xiao Lei's view, the game peripheral market in 2022 is inseparable from three words: wireless, three modes and lightweight.
Wireless gaming peripherals will be low-end
Speaking of gaming peripherals, a very obvious trend in recent years is wireless, from the mouse to the keyboard, to the headset, Logitech, Razer and other manufacturers have created a series of wireless peripheral product lines, so that your desktop wireless has become the head peripheral manufacturers have a consistent goal.
Moreover, wireless game peripherals have gradually extended from the initial high-end peripherals to the field of low-end peripherals, and now in the product line of Logitech and Razer, there have been wireless mice and wireless headphones priced at 200-300, and wireless game peripherals are gradually replacing wired peripherals and becoming the first choice of users.
In the field of gaming, wireless is actually not simple, and unlike traditional office, web browsing and other needs, game peripherals need to provide players with accurate operational feedback and extremely low latency in intense operation. Therefore, wireless gaming peripherals need to reduce their wireless transmission delay to the same as the wired connection, or even lower value, to solve these problems require manufacturers to deeply optimize and customize the wireless connection module.
Therefore, the cost of the initial wireless game peripherals is much higher than that of ordinary game peripherals, whether it is Razer or Logitech, low-latency wireless technology is only applied to their own flagship products. However, with the iteration of technological updates in recent years, today's low-latency wireless technology has matured more and more mature, and the cost has been significantly reduced, and gaming mice have become the initial beneficiaries.
After reducing the price of the wireless gaming mouse to the entry level, Logitech and Razer turned to the gaming headset product line, and the G435 released by Logitech in 2021 has comprehensively upgraded the appearance, performance, weight, etc. on the basis of the previous generation, and reduced the price of wireless gaming headsets to 500 yuan.
On the other hand, Razer launched the Barracuda X headset as a response, the price is also the same benchmark G435, Logitech and Razer at the same time launched a low-end game headset, directly led to the price decline of wireless game headsets, such as HyperX and other brands have followed suit.
Anyway, in the middle of 2022, we will certainly be able to see more wireless gaming peripherals enter the low-end market, such as wireless gaming keyboards that are still high-priced, etc., and in the next year will be expected to see lower-priced products, so that desktop wireless is almost the unified goal of all peripheral manufacturers, ready for a new era of wireless.
The tri-mode of high-end gaming peripherals will be standard
Wireless three-mode is actually not uncommon, many of Logitech's wireless office peripherals support three-mode connection, in simple terms, in addition to the 2.4G receiver connection, bluetooth wireless connection function has been added, plus wired connection and called three connection modes.
Three modes are very common in many mid-to-high-end office peripherals, but the same function has not yet been seen in the wireless game peripheral product line. However, Xiaolei has noticed that some game peripheral manufacturers have begun to launch high-end wireless gaming peripherals equipped with three-mode connectivity, targeting the multi-device user market.
For example, Germany's Ice Leopard launched the first flagship wireless three-mode gaming mouse, Alienware also launched the first wireless game headset that supports three-mode connection, from the new products of CES 2022, the wireless three-mode into the high-end game peripheral market is already a trend, and considering that the two major manufacturers have been from the last release of flagship wireless game peripherals has been a long time, it is not difficult to guess that this year there should be a completely different new flagship product launched.
How can the new flagship product be distinguished from the previous generation flagship and other low-end product lines? Adding the wireless trimode feature is a good choice and caters to the multi-device gaming needs of gamers. Nowadays, many players have more than one game device, from computers to Switch, game consoles, mobile phones, etc., in the case of multi-device play, wireless three-mode will become just needed.
In Xiao Lei's view, there is no technical difficulty in applying wireless three-mode technology to wireless game peripherals, second-tier brands such as Ice Leopard can do it, Logitech and Razer have no reason not to do it, and the only thing that hinders them at present may be the time of new product release and the optimization of wireless connectivity.
There is no doubt that the arrival of low-latency wireless three-mode technology will once again usher in a new wave of technology competition in the gaming peripheral market.
Why is lightweighting the eternal focus?
If you pay attention to the peripheral market in recent years, you may find a common point: Logitech, Razer and other big manufacturers of game peripherals, their flagship products have a common main selling point - lightweight. In fact, lightweight is also the main selling point of high-end gaming peripherals in recent years, such as Logitech's G PRO WIRELESS, and the main change in its iterative upgrade product G PRO X SUPERLIGHT is that the weight has dropped by about 17 grams again.
In fact, a careful comparison of G PRO WIRELESS and G PRO X SUPERLIGHT shows that there is almost no other difference between the two, except for a significant reduction in weight and fine-tuning of appearance, and even the battery life that often appeared on promotional pages before is missing.
Coincidentally, Razer's flagship mouse product Viper Ultimate Edition is also a product aimed at lightweighting, and it is also a product that directly benchmarks G PRO WIRELESS. If there is no accident, this year we should be able to see the iterative product of viper ultimate version launched, most likely a lighter wireless gaming mouse, the opponent is naturally Logitech's G PRO X SUPERLIGHT.
On the other hand, wireless gaming headsets are also on the road to lightweighting, logitech's new product G435 is a selling point with a lightweight body, with comfortable ear cups and headbands, claiming to bring players a long-term comfortable wearing experience. In fact, in the field of wireless gaming headsets, Logitech is already one step behind, as early as logitech launched the G435, Razer's whirlwind black shark V2 wireless version is known for its lightness and comfort, and has won the recognition of a large number of players.
Why are game manufacturers pursuing lightweighting? To some extent, it is also influenced by professional players, whether it is Logitech or Razer, in the product design stage, a large number of professional players have collected suggestions and experience feedback, and professional players often have ten hours a day or even longer in game training, during which they need to use headphones and mice all the time, resulting in them being very sensitive to the weight of similar peripherals.
Therefore, the lightweight design can minimize the burden on the wrist and head, and naturally it is the most respected, although the average player will not play the game for such a long time, but the comfort improvement brought by lightweight is undoubtedly recognized by most players.
Moreover, as long as the professional players also represent the highest level of the group of players, then lightweight will always be one of the main selling points of game peripheral manufacturers, after all, "professional players with the same model" can always make players happy.
At last
In the game peripherals market, the trends of the head manufacturers in recent years are actually very consistent, more wireless products, more co-branded IP products and more lightweight products, in addition, the game peripherals manufacturers have not only been satisfied with their own acres and acres, including Razer manufacturers have begun to gradually dabble in other fields.
With the gradual homogenization of head factory products, it may be an opportunity for second- and third-line game peripheral manufacturers, and it may be a road worth considering to obtain the recognition of players with differentiated design and functions, such as the wireless three-mode game mouse launched by brands such as Ice Leopard, which has attracted the attention of many players before the head manufacturer.
For domestic game peripheral brands facing the "encirclement and suppression" of brands such as Logitech and Razer, in addition to the main cost performance, we can also consider starting from more practical functions, design, etc., to open up other markets that the head manufacturers have not noticed, and may also be able to go out of a different path.