BenQ who have had a lot of success in Australia with projectors and monitors has announced it will launch gaming peripheral devices, including keyboards, mice, mouse pads, headphones and LCD monitors, under the new brand Zowie.
The move is aimed at strengthening the Companies marketing
of gaming peripheral devices which is tipped to grow in 2016.
BenQ first invested in Zowie Gear in 2015 and it will now
adopt Zowie as a mainstream retail new brand specifically for gaming peripherals.
BenQ is expected to also benefit from demand for new large 4K
gaming display screens.
While the global PC gaming hardware market has receded in 2015 it is less than the overall PC market, however analysts are tipping growth for
the PC gaming category in 2016, as Acer, Lenovo, Dell with their Alienware brand launch
new products in Australia.
Jon Peddie Research (JPR) believes that notebooks bought for
gaming have entered a challenging sales environment as PC gamers gear up for
the forthcoming mass market 4K/UHD development and the introduction of new gaming machines built around new Intel processors.
Ted Pollak, Senior Analyst notes “. This cycle, unlike any
for the past fifteen years, will inspire gamers to upgrade their displays. 27
inch and larger 4K/UHD displays are reaching mass market pricing levels and
produce an incredible experience allowing much wider field of view and greater
detail”.
“The financial outlay for these display upgrades alone
is billions of dollars over the coming years” Jon Peddie, President of JPR adds
“In addition to the cost of the new display technology, gamers are going to
need the computing horsepower to drive Triple A game engines at over 60 frames
per second, and that horsepower comes at a premium”.
Sixty frames per second is considered the gold standard in
PC gaming and many prefer even faster speeds, at least twice that number if VR
is involved.
The gaming notebook and desktop market is especially
challenged in the low end as many casual players opt for tablets and TV Gaming
options to satisfy their needs. However, a new wave of TV optimised PCs from Alienware,
Acer, and other companies could buck the trend.
Analysts claim the PC Gaming Hardware Market is very diverse
amongst its different segments. The high end Enthusiast segment is very
performance and style oriented much like sports car owners. While the low end
just wants to play games on something and this is why the segment is under
threat from cheaper gaming solutions.
