Help Design Roccat's SOVA Gaming Board
Peripheral maker, Roccat, is calling on fans to help develop its wireless modular gaming board, the Roccat Sova. To get this collaborative party started, the company launched on Monday a new blog dedicated to the development of Roccat's Sova. The company's designers and developers will drop in to discuss fan feedback, features, the technical and aesthetic side of creating groundbreaking peripherals, and more.
René Korte, CEO and founder of Roccat, starts the blog with a personal note to the company's fans. He says that the blog will include surveys and comment sections so that the fans can help guide the development and help bring Sova to the market.
"We realize that now is not the time to sit back and wait, but to give fans what they want as quickly as possible," Korte writes. "We're ready to go full speed into our refinement process, and want our fans to see the hard work that goes into moving a ROCCAT product from its development phase, into what you see at retail. The Sova is coming, it is going to be an amazing piece of gaming hardware, and you'll get to follow every step on that journey in our newly launched Sova Development Blog."
The Roccat Sova is a PC gaming peripheral that can sit on your lap. The device starts with a premium brushed aluminum board with cutouts in the top-left section allowing for 74 keyboard keys with Cherry MX switches and illumination. A palm rest resides at the bottom of the keyboard, and a mouse pad takes up the right half of the board.
The Roccat Sova also includes an integrated cable channel that rides along the top edge, two padded leg rests for "maximum comfort and ventilation," and a long-life battery pack for extended playing sessions. The device also provides anti-slip side panels, several USB ports, and a clamp that holds the user's smartphone horizontally.
Unfortunately, as pointed out during E3 2014, the term "modular" does not mean the device caters to left-handed gamers; this gadget is strictly for right-handed customers.
"Follow this blog to be part of the journey the Sova prototype takes – until it becomes a real product that we can ship," the blog reads. "Also make sure to check our Facebook and YouTube updates if you don't want to miss a step in the further development. Please keep sharing your thoughts and comments on the Sova and let us know what your ideal version of the product would look like."
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.