Following China, the United States, and Japan, Korea has the world's fourth-largest gaming market. Esports viewership increased by 23% compared to last year, and with the convergence of mobile and PC games, the number of high-performance game users who play regardless of location—such as cafes or subways—is growing, leading to an upward trend in overall game playtime. Accordingly, the gaming gear brand SteelSeries is focusing on the Korean market and successively unveiling its new product lineup.

Gaming gear brand SteelSeries held the '2022 SteelSeries New Product Launch Event' at the GLAD Hotel in Yeouido on the 10th. At the presentation, SteelSeries shared the current status and outlook of the overall domestic game market and unveiled its business strategy and key new products for the second half of the year.

■ Arctis Nova Headset, 7 Years of Waiting At this new product launch event, SteelSeries unveiled the 'Arctis Nova Pro,' a new headset lineup for the first time in seven years, and the 'Apex Pro Series' keyboard lineup's Pro Mini.

The Arctis Nova Pro is equipped with a variety of features, including active noise cancellation, an AI noise-canceling microphone, and a dual connectivity system. In particular, SteelSeries emphasized that it has achieved a high level of gaming audio by combining it with the 'Sonar Audio Software Suite System'. Features such as professional-grade parameter EQ, 360-degree spatial audio, individual sound settings for each game, and separate EQ settings for game sound and team chat have been implemented.

Arctis stated that its gaming headset market share has grown fivefold since 2016, and explained the background of the development, stating that the Nova product was launched after seven years by incorporating product improvements and technical requirements to keep pace with gamer needs and changing trends.

In particular, with 50% market growth observed in the gaming headset product line priced at over $300, a high-end product with enhanced features has been introduced to meet this expanding market demand.

The Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, released last July, sold out within two days of launch, demonstrating the high level of interest from gamers. SteelSeries announced that the second batch of stock would be released starting from today's presentation.

■ Apex Pro Mini, Configuration Range ↑, Form Factor ↓
As gamers' mouse usage range gradually expands, smaller keyboards are gaining popularity. The 'Apex Pro Mini,' which emphasizes fast response speed and action keys capable of dual action on a single key, was introduced at this new product launch event.

Amid the recent trend of rising demand for wireless products, the new 'Apex Pro Mini' from SteelSeries' top-tier keyboard lineup 'Apex Pro', which emphasizes portability, is equipped with OmniPoint 2.0 switches that allow users to select their desired sensitivity from the key input options.

SteelSeries explained that OmniPoint 2.0 is their proprietary technology that provides improved performance compared to the previous 1.0 version. They emphasized that it offers 11 times faster response times and 10 times faster motion recognition than standard mechanical switches, while durability has been doubled. The switch operates between 0.2mm and 3.8mm, and when the actuation point is set to 0.2mm, the response time is 0.54ms.

It features a design that maximizes desk space utilization with a form factor that is 60% smaller. Additionally, it offers a dual-action key press function that allows two actions to be performed with a single key. For instance, unlike walking, you can combine the inputs of A and S into a single key to configure the input to change depending on whether the key is pressed lightly or deeply.

In addition, SteelSeries unveiled its first-ever gaming speaker, 'Arena'. SteelSeries, citing a 44% increase in the annual growth rate of PC speakers compared to last year, signaled its intention to focus on the speaker market, which shows the third highest consumer adoption rate in the gaming gear market after monitors and chairs. Based on the audio technology of the existing Arctis headset, the gaming speaker Arena is scheduled to be unveiled in the upcoming fourth quarter.

■ Branch Manager Lee Hye-kyung, “Joined to improve unstable service aspects”
Hye-Kyung Lee, who took office as the head of SteelSeries Korea last June, has joined SteelSeries Korea to resolve the situation that has caused inconvenience to users due to internal personnel changes and changes in distribution channels.

Issues regarding SteelSeries' service quality, such as frequent replacements of domestic distributors and after-sales service, have often been raised in domestic communities. This has been pointed out as a reason why SteelSeries has been unable to increase its market share, and the need for improvement has been raised.

"I joined SteelSeries Korea and am working to improve service aspects," said Branch Manager Lee Hye-kyung. "Since last year, the headquarters has decided to make full-scale investments in Korea, laying the foundation for improving service quality and devising measures to resolve issues."

SteelSeries Korea has established a dedicated after-sales service team to provide support, reducing the time required for product exchanges from seven days to two days and implementing a policy to respond to online inquiries within 12 hours. However, they cautioned that it will take time for the policy to be fully established.

Branch Manager Lee stated, “SteelSeries will continue to develop high-performance products and build integrated solutions that simultaneously support software to maximize product performance, thereby providing gamers with the best possible gaming environment.”