The Rival 700 Mouse Brings Tactile Feedback to PC Gaming


Rival700TactileMousePC gaming has made some giant strides forward in recent years. Improvements in display technology, graphics cards, storage capabilities, and overall PC performance have driven the recent resurgence in a market that just a few years ago seemed on the verge of extinction in the home. While enterprise PCs continue to be a necessity for a large number of major businesses and tech firms, PCs for personal use have seen a steady decline for at least a decade now. But thanks to the gamers, the home PC again has a purpose –to provide countless, fanatical, obsessive, all-consuming hours of gaming time. Even so, there remains a bit of a gap between the experience that a console offers versus a PC. Danish gaming peripherals manufacturer SteelSeries is hoping to bridge that gap by creating accessories that deliver the immersive experience of console gaming to the PC world. Their latest product, the Rival 700, is primed to do just that. It’s a gamer’s dream mouse, offering over-the-top customization, tactile feedback and even a customizable OLED display onboard.

Rival700TactileMouse2Any avid gamer worth their weight in old Nintendo consoles remembers what it was like the first time they hooked a Rumble Pack up to their N64. It was a seemingly small addition that for the first time let the player actually feel what was happening on screen. SteelSeries is hoping to bring this same sensation to PC gaming with their Rival 700, which provides tactile feedback through customizable vibrations within the mouse. These tactile alerts can be programmed to feed the user critical in-game information without distracting from screen play. For example, the mouse can be set to alert the user when character or vehicle respawns are available, notify of threats or low health warnings or let you know when cool-downs are up. The user can even customize specific vibration patters and intensity for various onscreen events. “The mouse is no longer merely an input device; gamers can now feel in-game events, aiding them in critical decision-making” says SteelSeries.

Rival700TactileMouse1In addition to tactile feedback, the Rival 700 also comes with a fully customizable OLED display built into the side. This screen can be used to display in-game stats, a team logo, one of the many SteelSeries-supplied gifs available for download or even the mouse’s CPI (counts per inch) data. Speaking of CPI (which is essentially a measure of the mouse’s response time), the Rival 700 has a maximum 16,000 CPI and minimum one millisecond response rate, which provides virtually zero lag time. This first-of-its-kind gaming accessory even comes with a removable optical sensor. All things considered, this may still not be enough for most people to cough up $100 just for a mouse. For avid gaming enthusiasts and eSports athletes in particular though, the advantages and unique features of the Rival 700 may just make it worth every penny.

Topics: Technology News Gadgets & Peripherals Inventions & Innovations

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