Monoprice has a reputation as a value powerhouse in gaming, with its Dark Matter lineup of accessories and monitors offering gear that looks premium and performs nearly as well as what more expensive brands offer without costing nearly as much. Think of it as the universal store brand…store, great for getting the best gaming keyboards and best gaming mice you can find on a budget.
At this year’s CES, the company announced it’s expanding into more niche gear like racing wheels, flight sticks and arcade sticks. With affordable pricing, here's hoping this new gear injects some much-needed pricing competition into these oftentimes expensive markets.
The Monoprice Dark Matter Pro Racing Wheel is an all-inclusive kit, with a 10 inch, 900 degree rotation steering wheel, 3 foot paddles and a stick shift with realistic detailing. Everything has a muted black and silver color scheme, and the steering wheel comes with rubber grips, a D-Pad and your typical remappable controller buttons. It’s also got rumble vibration powered by dual-motors, and both the stick shift and steering wheel can be clamped to a desk or stand for greater stability. You’ve also got multi-platform support here, so you won’t be limited to either the PC or just one console.
To go with the wheel, Monoprice also has the GT Foldable Racing Wheel Stand for mounting parts of your sim rig to. This will obviously require a bit of space when fully opened, but it does fold away for easy storage. When fully stretched out, it’s 24.5 x 33 x 32.3 inches large, although it does adjust to give you more detailed customization. Perhaps you don’t need full tilt for your purposes, or you want to mount your steering wheel higher or lower than usual. You can do that here.
Finally on the racing front, there’s the GT Triple Monitor Racing Mount, which can hold three flat or curved monitors in a semicircle around your head for greater cockpit-style immersion.
Despite racing being in its name, you could also use that accessory in tandem with Monoprice’s new Dark Matter Flight Stick, which has 4 axis control, a D-Pad (or HAT) and 12 action buttons. One of those 4 axes of control comes from being able to rotate the stick itself, with another coming in the form of a slider that controls throttle speed.
If you’re not in the sim space, Monoprice still has a specialty controller for you in the form of the Dark Matter Arcade Fighting Stick. This uses Sanwa Denshi buttons alongside a Sanwa Denshi stick, both of which have strong reputations in the fighting game community. The frame is made from an aluminum alloy and the panel is acrylic, with two available designs. Also, if you don’t like the included parts, you can swap the buttons out for your own down the line.
All of the above accessories are set to launch in Q1 of this year. Monoprice told us that the Pro Racing Wheel will cost $149, which will again net you the wheel, the pedals and the stick shift, keeping in line with the company's reputation for value. The flight stick will cost $39, while the arcade stick will cost $139. The most expensive piece of gear in this piece will be the triple monitor mount, at $199, while the foldable racing wheel stand will come in towards the cheaper end at $79.
