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eSports – the event of professional gaming – has exploded in popularity over the last year.
Tournaments are now taking place in arenas filled with tens of thousands of people and the prize pots are bigger than some physical sporting events, often in excess of a million dollars.
The world of eSports has reached such a stage that a lot of developers at E3 this year have been showing content and accessories specifically aimed at the market. This is not a niche any more, this is big money for hardware and software makers and getting their products onto eSports stages with the biggest names and teams is now a very big deal.
All this is good news for general consumers too as it means we’re starting to get wider ranging features appear in thing such as headsets and custom controllers. For example Xbox has already announced that the next round of controllers they launch will be fully customisable.
But elsewhere on the E3 floor there were some interesting products to see, not just for the eSports crowd, but serious gamers too.
Headsets are a vital component for any gamer playing multiplayer with a need to communicate. They’re essential in the world of eSports for teammates to communicate as this isn’t just for fun – there’s usually money and reputation on the line too.
The Elite Pro is the complete top end of this spectrum – having been designed from the ground up for pro gamers. But that doesn’t mean that what’s here won’t benefit us mere mortals of the gaming world.
For example, they come with silicone cooling gel inside the ear pads, meaning the discomfort from wearing headphones for any extended period of time doesn’t materialise. It’s something that’s come around because of the intense gaming eSports pros go through, and how hot and sweaty they can get because of it. Now there’s a solution, and one that everyone can feel the benefit of, not just gamers.
As well as that, the Elite Pro come with a slot to slide the arm of your glasses through (if you wear them) so that they’re not pressed against your head by the ear pads.
Hidden away at one end of a hall at E3 was Nacon. The gaming accessories firm that makes keyboards, mice and gaming controllers for PCs used the convention to show off a concept they’re currently working on, and have since launched a successful crowd-funding campaign for – the GC-400ES.
The ES stands for eSports apparently, because this is a controller that is extensively customisable and tailored for more accurate controller use. For starters the right joystick has a wider angle of tilt, which means players can be more accurate with how far and how fast they move.
The button layout can also be completely edited to suit your playing style, and there are extra button on the rear of the device to add extra shortcuts for even faster and more precise actions. You can save up to four of these as ‘profiles’ on the controller too – so if you have a different set-up for different games in your collection you can save your controls for each.
There’s even the ability to upload, share and download different control maps, so you can get social or crowd-source a layout that suits you. It’s detail you never knew you needed.
And just for good measure, the controller will come with small weights, which you can use to alter the balance and feel of the controller in your hands. Yes really, it is something pro gamers do. Now you can too.
