Various companies are taking strides to address accessibility in the video gaming industry and we can now count Ikea among them. The Swedish furniture giant already provides a plethora of options for all types of home layouts. Now, Ikea is adding to its overall flexibility by partnering with medical wearable company Unyq for a lineup of gaming accessibility products called Uppkoppla.
In the press release, Ikea’s Creative Leader Michael Nikolic stated that the team hasn’t looked at the specific needs of gamers at home as much as they should have.
“There are many myths and misunderstandings surrounding gamers. In fact, it is a large group of people in all ages where gaming is even a full-time job for some”, he said.
The Uppkoppla lineup of three products is just the start as Ikea aims to expand and apply new learnings for customers with specific requirements. Unyq is an ideal partner in this regard, considering the company’s history with custom gear. Unyq was established in 2014 and has built its business on providing customizable, 3D printed medical wears that can be tailored to specific needs. Now the company is teaming up with Ikea to deliver three personalized products for gamers: Textured keycaps, a mouse bungee, and a biometric wristband.
The products debuted at an annual design conference in Sweden and each one has typically has provided a competitive edge for esports professionals but will reach a broader audience with Unyq and Ikea’s combined pursuit of cost efficiency. Hopefully, in the future, products like these, Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller, and others will be reflected on as just the start of an effort that snowballs into much more expansive accessibility support for gamers.
We only get a brief look at the pricing in the video Unyq published, unable to see additional package prices and what they may include. The keycaps start at $25, which seems to lean toward the higher prices when compared to other products, but it isn’t clear how many come in the standard bundle. The biometric wristband starts at $50 and is not something wildly available. Unyq and Ikea will have customers use an app to scan their hand so it can be customized to fit a specific shape. The mouse bungee is $40, which is also on the higher end, but it looks like a significantly more sturdy product than what’s offered elsewhere.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.