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Play to Win: A SteelSeries History

We're always learning, innovating, and improving. Here's a bit more background on where we started (way back in 2001) and who we are as a company.


Our first product

Every hour or two on a mouse, you'd have to turn it around, take off the lid, take the ball out and clean the two sensors before you could play again. Using the Icemat, you didn't have to do that.

Designed for esports

Designing stuff for esports pros is definitely different, no doubt about that. We want to do products without any BS that makes you a better gamer. Gamers are demanding consistency and high performance. They don't like to have overly complicated products if it doesn't make any sense.

It was more about taking existing technology but giving it a little bit of a twist to get them in as gaming products. What CTO Tino was doing was looking at single technologies and seeing how they could be applicable in gaming.

The first gaming headset: Siberia

Hands placing Siberia v1 gaming headphones on a surface with text, "first dedicated headset for gaming" and SteelSeries logo in the corner

A lot of what you do when you create either hardware or software is definitely hacking. Either you had music headphones or you had a communication headset - two different products, none of which were really fitting. That is why we came out with the Siberia. It really solved a problem - you could sit hours with your headset which you could not do before.

Built for gaming

We were always trying to make it better from the gaming perspective - nothing else. Easy, usable products that are giving you the advantage. There were a lot of fresh ideas and some very simple concepts where we could take technology that totally existed like mechanical keyboards.

The first gaming keyboard

If you are losing, you might hammer your hand down onto the keyboard. It's always the keyboard that gets punished - it's not the headset or anything else. We need to meet the gamer's needs to make a keyboard that can withstand the pain.

It's very different playing eight hours a day versus playing two times a week. It's super-duper important for a company like us to have enough resources available so we can go do some crazy stuff.

split screen between original mechanical keyboard and SteelSeries' first mechanical keyboard for gaming, with SteelSeries logo in the bottom corner

The gaming headset, evolved: Arctis

We know that gamers aren't just using headset in their room - they will use it on the street with a phone or console, whatever. Why shouldn't you create a headset you can use on the street or mobile phone as well?

With Arctis, we wanted to do something that wasn't just a gaming headset. It was a gamer's headset. All the way from the beginning, we were like, "Yeah - esports is going to be the biggest thing in the world. No doubt."

Sometimes I believe that we are driving this. We were pushing the limits, and I don't think we've reached the top yet at all. There's a lot of room for improvement on the final product.

Arctis headphones in a box with the text "First High Fidelity Headset for Gamers" above and the SteelSeries logo in the corner

What we believe

Whether it's winning against your son or a big tournament, it's really the belief that "I can do it, I rise to the challenge, I will go and no matter where I am, there's a future ahead of me where I can become a better gamer. I believe in that."

#ForGlory


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