There are gaming controllers – and then there is the Velocity One
A lot of money is made with peripherals for consoles and PCs. That’s why the market even has room for a supposed monster like the Velocity One.
There are games that demand a lot from the players. For example, when they have to familiarize themselves with the complicated mechanics of keeping a farm and its economy running in a “farming simulator”. A series that is particularly popular in Germany. Or they have to be in Rogue-like games fight persistently against the same opponents until they have strategies to defeat them. And then there are flight simulators.
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350 euros and with a “modular push quadrant”
Anyone who has ever taken a look into a cockpit knows that there are many switches, buttons and levers waiting to be operated. It is not for nothing that such a pilot training course is long and exhausting. These cockpits are simulated in video games such as Microsoft’s “Flight Simulator” – and the players will probably crash land one or two before they even come close to a smooth landing.
Fortunately, as for pretty much every video game genre, there are controllers to match. A particularly opulent one just announced Turtle Beach. For 350 euros you get the Velocity One, which you can use on the PC and on the Xbox Series X and S.
The controller should have a “realistic control horn”, a “modular thrust quadrant” and an “integrated rudder control”. And for particularly intense immersion, the Velocity One also has displays that show you important data from the game. If none of these terms mean anything to you, the controller is probably not for you.
It’s about immersion – and sales
Where a flight simulation used to come up with a funny pixel look, racing games felt as realistic as they looked and a lot of imagination was required for simulations, games today try to depict the greatest possible realism. The “Flight Simulator” alone lets you fly over detailed landscapes, some of which can no longer be distinguished from a real photo in pictures.
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Peripherals like the Velocity One show that there is an ever larger niche of gamers who want to fully penetrate these games. Immersion is the name of the state in which players can switch off the surrounding reality as much as possible in order to fully experience virtual reality. Then play they not just a pilot, they are it for a short time.
This is exactly why controllers are created that at first glance may seem like crude plastic outgrowths, but address – and build up – a market that is becoming more and more important in times of purely digital games. A lot of money can be made with this periphery. In the last year alone, the industry started offering peripherals for PCs and consoles 1.5 million euros in sales made in Germany.
