CES 2024: All the Coolest (and Weirdest) Gaming Gear We Saw | Lifehacker
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When you get into gaming, you seemingly will not simply store for the important {hardware}, like graphics playing cards and mice with additional buttons. Before you already know it, you will be Googling gaming chairs and headsets and light-up keyboards. CES 2024 kicked issues up a notch, debuting all kinds of revolutionary gaming tech—a few of which is legitimately cool, and a few of which is somewhat… quirky.
Cushions with haptic suggestions on your gaming chair
Credit: Razer
Razer’s coolest CES product idea is a haptic suggestions cushion on your gaming chair. Called Project Esther, this rumbly cushion on your rear finish has 16 haptic sensors that line up properly towards your again, butt, and thighs. When you play video games, you will get vibrating suggestions in numerous areas primarily based on what’s taking place in-game. On the one hand, this is smart: Haptic suggestions by way of handheld controllers can add rather a lot to the expertise of a recreation—however having that suggestions directed to your posterior is a little bit of a wierd twist.
A handheld that runs your outdated Sega cartridges
Credit: Hyperkin
If you are a collector with Sega Mega Drive and Genesis cartridges mendacity round, you may play these video games on Hyperkin‘s new handheld, referred to as the Mega 95. It has a 5-inch show that may simply toggle between 4:3 and 16:9 facet ratios. There’s no pricing or availability data in the mean time.
A Steam Deck rival from MSI
Credit: MSI
The launch of the Steam Deck has set off a wave of handheld gaming consoles for PC gaming. We’ve already seen the Asus ROG Ally, and now there’s the MSI Claw, which is the primary gaming handheld to ship with the Intel Core Ultra chip. Like the ROG Ally, the MSI Claw additionally runs Windows 11. The Claw has a few macro keys, which can permit you to run just a few pre-programmed actions on the press of a button. The console is priced between $699 and $799, and it will ship within the first half of 2024, in response to MSI.
A robust gaming PC with a tiny footprint
Credit: Asus
When you suppose gaming PCs, you are in all probability visualizing a towering hulk of a cupboard with a clear glass panel and sufficient RGB lighting to gentle up a room. ASUS desires you to revisit that imaginative and prescient with the ROG NUC, which is teeny-tiny. The machine weighs simply 1.76lbs (800g) and when propped up vertically, it is simply 1.6 inches broad and 5.6 inches tall.
It does not sacrifice on energy both, as you get to decide on between Intel Core Ultra 7 or Core Ultra 9 processors, as much as Nvidia’s RTX 4070 GPUs, and 64GB of RAM. The machine has 4 slots for PCIe SSD storage, too. There’s no pricing or availability data in the mean time, but it surely’ll be fascinating to see what the ultimate construct of this machine ships with. NUCs are well-known for not delivery with storage, and airflow can be a priority for tiny circumstances, however they principally do the job. I’ve used a NUC solely to play Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and it hasn’t disenchanted thus far.
A cool keyboard with RGB lighting
Credit: Hyte
Hyte Keeb TKL is a keyboard with RGB lighting and devoted media keys. It seems to be cool and has gasket-mounted keys, which ought to really feel nicer to press than your common clackety keyboard. It has a few fascinating magnetic rollers above the media keys, which you’ll program and use whereas gaming—to change out stock gadgets, cycle by weapons, and many others. The Keeb TKL is priced at $179.99 and ships beginning Feb. 15, 2024.
A return to old-school Xbox controllers
Credit: Hyperkin
The Xbox’s unique “Duke” controller has develop into the stuff of legend. It was huge and unergonomic, but it surely nonetheless has its fan following. Eventually, the Duke was changed by the Xbox Controller S, and Hyperkin has now recreated that controller on your trendy gaming units. This new controller known as the Hyperkin DuchesS. This product is in improvement proper now, so the ultimate model may change considerably, however we do know that it will work with Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows 10 or 11 gaming PCs.
A Rubik’s Cube lookalike for gaming
Credit: Jake Peterson
The WowCube seems to be and features like a Rubik’s Cube, but it surely has 4 screens on either side. You can twist these screens, tilt the gadget, and faucet the screens to play video games. With entry to an app retailer to obtain video games and on-screen widgets, it has the potential to be a enjoyable little gadget. In observe, although, it is not for everybody. Lifehacker’s Senior Technology Editor Jake Peterson tried out the WowCube at CES and he wasn’t impressed. The gadget is priced at $699 and ships in Q1 2024.