While we did see a wave of new brands emerge over the past two years which have offered competitive pricing, the flagship models from the major peripheral brands only been creeping up in price. Let’s look at some recent examples $150 for the GPX Superlight, $189 for the upcoming Wireless Finalmouse. The recent Zaunkoenig MK2 further pushes the ante with a 299 EUR pricepoint. While price enters in the conversation with almost every mouse review, how much should we be willing to pay?
We can look to the custom keyboard space where astronomical pricing is nothing new. Resellers have tapped into the market, scalping up prices of everything from keycaps to discontinued keyboard models. There’s perhaps more justification for pricing in that space as keyboards have the durability to last for over a decade and production numbers are limited , transparent and public. The same cannot be said for the gaming mouse market at this time. The recent promotion of Finalmouse and their diamond finalmouse stated to be worth $100,000 is yet another indicator that brands will charge whatever gamers are willing to pay.
Personally I don’t have a problem with higher prices IF we are getting a truly enthusiast quality product. As I’ve stated in the past, QC is still an issue that plagues the industry and many copies of mice from almost any brand out there is likely to have at least some production quality issues. If a mouse can truly be endgame with little to no major compromises I’d be willing to pay more than I have in the past. Price is an important conversation to have so I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on how much is too much to pay. Unfortunately the marketing of peripherals still revolves too much around a checklist of features and not enough on the actual quality and quality of execution on those features. It doesn’t matter how good the sensor is if the body creaks. I’d rather find my endgame mouse that is near perfection if it costs $200 rather than buying two $100 mice that let me down in various ways.
I think we’re getting closer to brands finding the formula for making quality products that incorporate the latest technology but as of now we’re still experiencing the growing pains of an expanding market. The barrier to entry to PC gaming is relatively high with soaring GPU prices these days. It’s good to see brands that can serve the needs of both entry level gamers as well as making enthusiast level products that justify higher price points. The bottom line in my opinion is that we need less hype and more fundamentals in 2021. Sound off in the comments with your thoughts on the issue.