Crazy Euro-peripheral manufacturer Roccat has stumbled upon a great wheeze marketing wheeze: a teaser site which questions whether or not PC gaming is dead , along with a countdown to something which may 'save' it.
But, waitaminute. Haven't we seen exactly the same strategy from another keyboard and mouse pedlar not so long ago ? Yes, I'm certain Roccat's new site rings a bell.
I'm not entirely sure what Roccat is aiming at with it's reversal of Razer's pre-Christmas catchphrase - they've changed it from 'PC gaming isn't dead' to the more quizzical "Isn't PC gaming dead?" To be honest, the campaign didn't work out all that well for Razer anyway - it's Blade laptop is still very much a concept device, which looks to be very expensive for what it is.
At least Razer was doing something a bit different though. I'm loathe to give Roccat's shameless rip off the air of publicity, especially as it may result in you inadvertently signing up for their email newsletter. I'm only writing about it now to poke fun at it. Poke. Poke. Poke.
In other news, an Alienware X51 landed in the office today and I'm pleasantly surprised by it. I don't want to play favourites here, but there's a lesson in the big A's approach that others would do well to follow: if you're going to announce a PC gaming device that you think is really revolutionary, make sure you follow up with real product quickly. And don't posit yourself as some sort of saviour - by attracting more console gamers over to PCs, Alienware's machine will likely do more to help our hobby than anything which thinks it can single handedly change it forever.
Who knows, Roccat might have something genuinely interesting to announce at CeBit , which is when the timer's due to expire...
