A new concept is underway which will make your knees soft - especially if you’re into winning.

Check www.UGT.se where additional information will be released at 20:00 CET every day leading up to January 1st.

Have a happy (and safe) New Year. :)

/Casper

2008 has been an immensely exciting ride for us here at SteelSeries. Period.

There are a few things that definitely stand out when looking back at the past 12 months, one of them being the neat bunch of professional gaming organizations that partnered up with us throughout the year. Being able to add the likes of fnatic, MYM and MiBR to our list of sponsored teams was an honor for us and a huge step in the right direction.

Acquiring Ideazon was an important milestone as well. The transition ended up being very smooth and after completing all the transition-related tasks it brought along, the result came to be nothing but outstanding and definitely something that has helped push SteelSeries forward.

Finally on the product side of things, we decided to give our portfolio of headsets a facelift color-wise as well as to introduce the 7G keyboard, a couple of customized products together with German powerhouse, mousesports, and launch the WoW MMO Gaming Mouse and limited edition products for the WoW: WotLK expansion in cooperation with Blizzard.

However, this year is not over for us yet in spite of just having about a week’s time left. Stay tuned for a very interesting initiative to be announced within the next couple of days, that will both close 2008 and kick off the new year with style.

And oh boy, we’re looking forward to 2009. In spite of the economical situation around the Globe and the inevitable bankruptcy-plague, we are confident that the new year will be a positive and progressive journey.

For some reason, this is the most Christmas-ish-gaming-like picture I could find on the web (what’s up with that, Google?) after feeling a bit creatively handicapped this morning. My bad.

Happy holidays. :)

/Casper

The first review in the World of the World of Warcraft MMO Gaming mouse got published yesterday on one of UK’s larger hardware and review sites, Driverheaven.net

The guys over at Driverheaven actually happened to like the mouse a lot and decided to award it their Heavenly Gold Award - Best In Class. This is a %95+ rating which doesn’t happen very often on Driverheaven and we’re overly excited about receiving this stamp of quality.

“All in all, the mouse is an excellent product. The 15 buttons provide excellent customisation and are easy to reach and operate. The software is some of the best we’ve seen and certainly lives up to the demands of the game it is designed to complement… great job from SteelSeries and Blizzard. Additionally, the mouse looks fantastic and the illumination is very stylish.” - Driverheaven.net.

The review is available here and includes a bunch of pictures of the mouse as well.

/Casper

On top of yesterdays delay announcement, it’s with great pleasure that we finally finished our flash demo of the World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse for your viewing pleasure.

The flash video basically gives you a quick tour around the mouse and it’s features as well as a detailed look at the software and how the button assignment and macro creation works in practice.

No further introduction needed - check out a few screenshots below and view the demo HERE.

We hate to say this - but we simply can’t keep up with demand on the new World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse. We know, it sucks. For all of you who pre-ordered it, and for all of you waiting to get it in retail.

We are doing our very best to ramp up production, but it’s proving really difficult to keep up with demand. The issue we are running into relates to the production of the mouse surface. The surface isn’t just your regular piece of plastic. It requires a delicate and time-consuming process with numerous steps divided into 6 phases to make it look like a piece of armor. To underline the unique touch of each unit, it’s worth mentioning that every mouse gets a real metal plating as well as a hand brushed finish.

The phases are shown on the picture below where each treatment is represented by each piece in the fan:

We put a lot of love into our products and we are committed to delivering quality without compromises. We know that many of you are eagerly awaiting this product, and we apologize for the delays and any inconvenience this might have caused.

We are doing our best to fulfill the overwhelming and unprecedented demand for this product and have expanded our manufacturing capacity considerably, in an effort to get this mouse shipping to customers as soon as possible. We are currently reaching out to all pre-orders customers with an update regarding their specific order. We hope to be able to meet demand soon and will keep you all posted.

/The SteelSeries team

The 4th season of one of the most professional and popular tournaments in Russia, NPCL, kicked off last week and SteelSeries sponsored PinCho had the honor of opening the season, going head to head with Team 46.

PinCho CS:S prior to their match.

PinCho ended up taking home the victory with an overall 8-2 score, after a close match across four game titles being Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Source, StarCraft: Broodwar and FIFA 09.

NPCL is actually a very interesting league and this season boasts a $40.000 prize pot which is rarely seen in Russia. 10 teams are chosen before the season starts and are provided a $4.000 budget to develop the organization and make it presentable before season kick-off. All matches are televised and played at the 4GAME Center in Moscow.

/Casper

This weekends’ Electronic Sports League Pro Finals in Germany offered a stunning 165.000 Euro prize purse in order to reward the absolute best German gamers.

SteelSeries sponsored teams SK Gaming and mousesports had teams participating respectively in FIFA and Counter-Strike, where they both, as expected, ended up taking home gold and jointly over 20.000 Euro’s in cash.

mousesports set an excellent conclusion of possibly the best year Counter-Strike-wise in the history of the organization. Picture courtesy of Fragster.

SK’s FIFA team has a good reason to celebrate, by being crowned as German FIFA champions for the 6th time in a row. Picture courtesy of readmore.

Last but not least, MYM WC3 player Moon won the International E-sports/entertainment Festival in Korea, gaining a lot of momentum by defeating close competitors Infi and Sky on the way to 1st place and the 11.600$ prize.

/Casper

Just in time for Christmas, we joined hands with Blizzard to offer you guys some sweet gaming gear packages including all the new limited edition WotLK products and the 15-buttoned WoW MMO Gaming Mouse.

Basically, you are asked to create your own World of Warcraft themed Christmas decoration and send in the picture to enter the contest - simple as that. Now that shouldn’t leave even the most hardcore WoW player breathless.

Check out the prize package as well as more info and terms on the contest page over at Blizzard.

Also, don’t forget that you can still enter the competition over at SK Gaming by letting us know how you would set up your WoW MMO Gaming Mouse. SK Gaming’s professional PvP players will decide which setup wins the big prize and are currently commenting on the posted entries.

Ho ho ho!

/Casper

We arrived safely in Copenhagen Sunday night after pulling down the booth and stuffing three vans to the absolute maximum.

SK Gaming during the Counter-Strike finals - please notice the stylish colors on allen. Picture courtesy of Fragbite.

Incorporated finished the last main WoW raid in our booth Saturday night flawlessly and SK Gaming managed to come out on top in the $54.000 Counter-Strike tournament, with the top4 placing teams being:
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