SteelSeries CEO Talks Apple and the Nimbus Controller
Venture Beat has a great interview with SteelSeries CEO Ethisham Rabbani about their new Nimbus controller, and about their general relationship with Apple.
I strongly recommend reading the original article, but here are a few highlights:
GamesBeat: […] What were some of the challenges you faced when designing with Apple?
Rabbani: […] The ergonomics are absolutely critical. You know, unlike mobile gaming, where youâre playing for ten to fifteen minutes and then moving on, when youâre playing in your living room on your TV youâre going to play for several hours.
[…] The amount of pressure on the triggers has to be perfect. If the pressure is too light, youâll accidentally trigger it. If the pressure is too heavy, it is going to fatigue your fingers.
Sounds like they’ve learned their lesson! The triggers on the Stratus XL were so sensitive that they were basically unusable. Seems like SteelSeries has corrected this design flaw for the Nimbus.
GamesBeat: So with all this attention to detail, what is your take on the wireless aspect? I know a lot of professional players donât want to touch wireless. They want to go straight wired. That seems like a pretty big hurdle to get over with this controller.
Rabbani: So for us, the question was, âHow do you have the most lag-free experience?â Obviously, the whole reason you donât want to use a wireless controller is because you donât want lag.
So the only way for us to do that was to use a solution that used the next generation of Bluetooth 4.0 into the mix. That has greatly improved the [capability] of having a lag free experience.
And not only is the wireless protocol that you use critical, but you have to have great processing power in the product itself. So that when the product sees a signal [generated by user input], it immediately sees them and doesnât require the PC or game machine to process the inputs for it.
Very cool. Building a processor directly into the controller really does cut down lag. More than that, it can allow advanced features like on-board control remapping, pressure customization, combos. No clue if the Nimbus will allow any of that, but hey, at least we’ll get less lag.
GamesBeat: So when you guys first started up the Nimbus project, what sort of gamepads ⦠or what sort of previous projects did you look at and say, âThis is where we want to start building the Nimbus idea. These are the features we need to look at.â
Rabbani: Nimbus is actually our third controller in the iOS ecosystem. So this isnât our first go at it, which is part of the reason why I think it came out as such a great controller.
[…] We wanted a controller that felt good, if not better, than any of the other console controllers out there. And that was a test we set out to prove to ourselves. This wasnât for bragging rights. Youâll never see us go out and say that, âWeâve proven that this controller is better than the Xbox One controller!â
But really, that was our benchmark.
Music to my ears. The Stratus XL was VASTLY improved over the original Stratus. I had problems with both controllers, but give this to SteelSeries: they learn from their mistakes.
This is how I ended my review of the SteelSeries Stratus XL:
I cannot wait to see the third Stratus SteelSeries makes. If it is as much improved over itâs predecessor as this controller is over the first Stratus, weâre in for a real treat.
It seems like my hopes might have come true with the Nimbus. Tentatively, at least – I still need to actually get my hands on one and judge for myself.
GamesBeat: Is the Nimbus a joint product? Is this going to be packed in with the Apple TV?
Rabbani: It is its own product, so it is a third-party controller ⦠but it wasnât developed like your typical third-party product.
[…] From conception to design to validation ⦠itâs been done jointly. There is technology in there that has been 100 percent designed by Apple, thereâs technology that is 100 percent designed by SteelSeries.
[…] We had already identified that iOS gaming was going to be big, and we wanted to be on the forefront of it. So we started working on these things years ago.
So in the natural flow of conversation [with Apple], even before Apple knew what they wanted to do with the TV, these discussions were going on and everything flowed into this project.
And now we know why Apple carries the Stratus controllers instead of the superior controllers by Mad Catz: Apple has a closer relationship with SteelSeries.
Apple rarely co-designs products with other companies. It’s a testament to how little Apple gives a damn about gaming that they’re willing to give SteelSeries the credit for this controller.
For the first 2 years of the MFi controller program, Apple was content to let the little guys fight it out. It seems Apple has decided to throw their weight behind SteelSeries now.
My guess: if Apple ever does get serious about gaming, they’ll buy SteelSeries immediately.