The Hardware of Gamescom 2014

Mad Catz

Mad Catz had on show its Tournament Edition products, specifically designed for gaming tournaments together with e-sports professionals. The R.A.T.TE and M.M.O.TE mice are both available in four colours (matte black, gloss red, gloss black and gloss white). The R.A.T.TE is designed for FPS players. It featres an 8,200 DPI laser sensor with four customisable DPI settings as well as an oversized precision DPI button. It weighs just 90g (excluding cable) and also carries OMRON switches beneath the main right and left buttons, and these are rated for a whopping 5 million presses each.



The M.M.O.TE is the newer of the two and builds upon what the R.A.T.TE already offers – the 8,200 DPI sensor and OMRON switches remain. As the name indicates, it's designed for MMO players, and as such it features the ability to store a massive 60 commands via its 20 programmable buttons and three modes. The cast majority of these buttons are in the mouse's thumb zone. You can also adjust the length of the palm rest to suit the size of your hand. Aesthetically, the M.M.O.TE may not look amazing or comfortable, but we were surprised when we got our hands on it, as everywhere that it actually makes contact with your hands the surface is smooth and pleasant to hold. The thumb buttons also fit to the shape of your thumb remarkably well. It's evidently built for function over form, but even so despite our reservations we think we could actually get used to it quite quickly.


Finally, there was the S.T.R.I.K.E.TE keyboard, with an aluminium chassis and 109 mechanical keys. Shockingly, this is the first time Mad Catz has ventured into mechanical keys, although it's using “brown profile” switches made by Kailh rather than traditional brown Cherry MX switches, though they are still apparently rated for 50 million presses each. Using its 12 macro buttons (7 along the top, 5 around the arrow keys) and 3 modes, it can issue 36 commands to any game. It also has anti-ghosting with 30 key rollover and comes with a detachable plastic wrist rest. It's available in the same four colour schemes as the aforementioned mice.