Article written by Joshua Hood.
Published on 25/01/2013 at 04:39 PM.
Following the announcement of its latest financial results this morning, Logitech has revealed that it will be dropping products that do not “fit with [their] current strategic direction”, including console gaming peripherals.
“Continued weakness in the global PC market was the primary faction in our disappointing Q3 results,” said Bracken Darrell, Logitech’s president and CEO on the release of the figures – the company’s main focus is in PC peripherals, including mice, keyboards, webcams etc.
“My goal is to get Logitech back to sustained profitability as quickly as possible,” Bracken continued. “This requires unwavering focus on developing great products both for large and for fast-growing markets, removing unnecessary costs and a commitment to move at least as fast as the markets in which we participate.”
The GT demo pods that often turn up at Sony events are equipped with Logitech kit.
On PC, Logitech produces keyboards and mice designed for gaming, including separate function keypads, as well as joysticks, but this business would be seemingly unaffected by the move.
Logitech’s presence on console is significantly smaller, but includes remote controls, gamepads, microphones, headsets, and most prominently, wheel and pedal kits designed for racing titles – including the official Gran Turismo wheel, the Driving Force GT.
I’d best stock up on replacement mice, then… :(
OOoooh, OK, so this was a rather confusing statement, I find.
They’re still doing PC gaming peripherals, but culling their console efforts. Honestly, aside from racing wheels, I think that kind of makes sense.
“Continued weakness in the global PC market was the primary faction in our disappointing Q3 results”
So we’ll drop everything else and focus on that.
Mind you, wheels aside, do any significant number of people ever buy anything other than the official controllers for their consoles? I never have, nor has anyone I know.
Logitech makes quality hardware accessories at an affordable price, my last three mice have been logitech. It’s sad that they’ll move away from making wheels and pedals for gaming.
That’s a shame, we’ve got some Logitech iPod speakers in the kitchen and they were a cracking budget buy. The wheels are also awesome quality, maybe they’ll continue to be made seeing as some of them are compatible across the board?
I thought i had never bought anything from them, then look down and see both my mouse and keyboard are both Logitech. I didn’t even know that they did stuff for consoles.
I always check out Logitech accessories first for any add on console peripherals, very well known for reliability and quality. My PS3 uses a Keyboard, Mouse, Racing Wheel and has used a USB hub all by Logitech. Sad times :(