If extravagantly illuminating mice and keyboards aren’t your thing, eSports team Fnatic is launching Fnatic Gear, a cost-friendly mouse, keyboard, and mousepad package, pretty soon. For $167 on its IndieGoGo page, the team is promising all the “simplicity, comfort, and reliability” you’d come to expect from a gaming mouse and keyboard, without all the unnecessary glamor.
“No flashy green lights will get you a Pentakill,” the team explains. “No fan on a mouse will help you hit a headshot.” Fnatic’s peripheral lineup is “exactly what you need to perform and nothing else.”
Streamlining the designs of its utilities wasn’t the only priority, however, as Fnatic’s setup also bolsters simple, easy to remember naming conventions, unlike many of its competitors. The Flick Mouse; the Rush keyboard with Cherry MX switches; the Boost hard pad, the Focus cloth mat, the Focus desk mouse pad — all of these accessories, from the mouse to the three mousepad variations, bear more digestible names than the G910 Orion Spark or the endless list of BlackWidow Chroma variants.
Opting for sales through a crowdfunding channel rather than going with retailers is also explained by the newly formed company. “Crowdfunding is very powerful because it allows us to have a close, connected relationship with our customers and community. Something that is often hard if you only go the traditional route which is through big distributors/retailers… It also allows us to charge lower prices, if we can establish this relationship direct to our consumers.”
Alternatively, rather than paying $167 for a device or two you don’t need, you can buy Fnatic’s accessories separately. While, say, the Boost hard mouse pad costs $19, the mouse and keyboard on their own will set you back $49 and $199, respectively. That’s not cheap, but Fnatic is hoping its name recognition will make the peripherals fly off the virtual shelves.
