Logitech in financial trouble. "Discontinue... console peripherals"
- Thread starter paskowitz
- 227 comments
- 25,329 views
I think you missed the point. Someone looking for an Audi or BMW wouldn't care that Suzuki has left the car market it is completely irrelevant. Unless Suzuki had plans to introduce an M3 killer the value of their product doesn't really matter to those people. You are clearly in Logitech's target market hence you care.
- 23,800
- Philippines
This here is the crux of the problem. Fanatec and Thrustmaster are niche manufacturers.
Even worse, consider that many, many, many markets don't even have Fanatec or Thrustmaster available in stores. Logitech is available everywhere. It's as predictable as McDonald's.
Need a good optical mouse and stuck in Namibia? There's a store with Logitech products there.
Need a good computer speaker set and stuck in Vietnam? There's a couple of stores carrying Logitech there, too.
Need a good sim wheel (not a Chinese knock off with 1 turn lock-to-lock movement and a 2 week warranty) and stuck in the Philippines?
Sorry. Logitech don't make that no more.
- 8
- SaltCrockCuntry
I built my own machines for years and I'll take these Alienwares any day. I'm kinda tired of the "I could build my own rig/computer/car/zepplin/nuclear reactor myself and save 1,000.
Some of us don't have the time to worry about building it and like the pick up the phone, order, and open a box full of sexiness.
There is so much haterade on the internet. "Hey dude, you're such a sucker for buying that rig/computer you could have easily spent X amount of time building your own and rocked with the underground scene"
Yawn.
I am new here, but Mr. Mayaman you have a very phat online profile, like the anti-bunyip, so easy to find you and your many toys.
Why does Wall Street Finance man who makes crust of your seeming means even bothers to grizzle on things likes this? I am a longtime lurker here and there but didn't find much "haterade" between DIY and ready made buyers. Useless whinge? I believe you post many modifications to that rig from quaky isles did you not? Perhaps sheila was not sexy enough out of the box?
Last edited:
- 481
- Germany
- GTP_Mahnegold
From Logitechs FB-Site:
"Ehtisham here, GM for Logitech Gaming, with an update on Logitech G-Series. We've tightened our focus on PC gaming, concentrating on what we believe are the most important products we can deliver to the gaming community high performance PC gaming gear. The whole G-Series team has a deep love for PC gaming and is committed to the community. Thanks to all of you for your continued support.
Stay tuned. Great things to come.
Ehtisham Rabbani
General Manager, Logitech G-Series"
I consider the G27 as part of G-Series, so at least there is some hope...
"Ehtisham here, GM for Logitech Gaming, with an update on Logitech G-Series. We've tightened our focus on PC gaming, concentrating on what we believe are the most important products we can deliver to the gaming community high performance PC gaming gear. The whole G-Series team has a deep love for PC gaming and is committed to the community. Thanks to all of you for your continued support.
Stay tuned. Great things to come.
Ehtisham Rabbani
General Manager, Logitech G-Series"
I consider the G27 as part of G-Series, so at least there is some hope...
ItsHim
Premium
- 1,414
- Bavaria/Germany
As I said: bang for your buck. And I don't have to post a video to the manufacturer if something goes wrong with their product either.
You don't even get Fanatec products at their HQ in Landshut, Germany. I tried to pick one up last year, or take a look in person. No joy.
Now I don't want to bash Fanatec, but they simply don't play in the same league as Logitech or Thrustmaster. The latter being readily available in a MediaMarkt chain store somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Bavaria.
I don't even consider the DFGT or G25/27 mainstream products btw. It takes some commitment to clutter the living room with a wheel, and it's a bit expensive to buy hardware which is strictly speaking only for one game genre when all it takes to play most games is a game pad, or indeed a mouse and keyboard which is already there.
- 790
- Germany
You know that we sold a 7 digit number of wheels so far and have been in the wheel business years before Logitech ever made a wheel?
Of course we are still much smaller but it is more fun to be Porsche than Toyota.
We don't have a warehouse in Landshut so you cannot just walk in and take your products with you. And despite that retailers would love to sell our products we have decided to reject their inquiries and fully focus on e-commerce without any compromise. This turns out more more to be a big strength and advantage over the competition. Just think about our flexible configuration system how to slect exactly the components you really need or the extensive use of high-end materials at a very affordable price level.
But as you are from Bavaria you are welcome to visit our new showroom and try out our products. This is not a general offer to everybody but if somebody is interested he can send me a PM.
Of course we are still much smaller but it is more fun to be Porsche than Toyota.
We don't have a warehouse in Landshut so you cannot just walk in and take your products with you. And despite that retailers would love to sell our products we have decided to reject their inquiries and fully focus on e-commerce without any compromise. This turns out more more to be a big strength and advantage over the competition. Just think about our flexible configuration system how to slect exactly the components you really need or the extensive use of high-end materials at a very affordable price level.
But as you are from Bavaria you are welcome to visit our new showroom and try out our products. This is not a general offer to everybody but if somebody is interested he can send me a PM.
- 6,598
- United Kingdom
- MSTER232
- PS3 =/= Xbox 360
- 15,532
- Cairo, Egypt
- GTP_SEMS
From Logitechs FB-Site:
"Ehtisham here, GM for Logitech Gaming, with an update on Logitech G-Series. We've tightened our focus on PC gaming, concentrating on what we believe are the most important products we can deliver to the gaming community high performance PC gaming gear. The whole G-Series team has a deep love for PC gaming and is committed to the community. Thanks to all of you for your continued support.
Stay tuned. Great things to come.
Ehtisham Rabbani
General Manager, Logitech G-Series"
I consider the G27 as part of G-Series, so at least there is some hope...
That is good news indeed .I do agree with Nicky Here in Egypt the only wheels available are Logitech wheels so if they dissapear then there goes any chance of buying a wheel for me.
Mayaman
Premium
- 2,224
Fanatec bashing is funny. Fanatec has continuously pushed the envelope of consumer level wheels. Better and more features, more realism. 7 figures in wheels sold, I'm guessing there are more satisfied than not. Secondly, the main guy at the company is on forums getting input from the community. I don't remember the head of logitec here. Sorry but the blind fanboy rhetoric is tiring. The sim community and sim racing in general is better because of Fanatec products. Just my. 02
- 577
- NC
Fanatec is the only volume Simwheel company doing ~100% e-commerce. This makes the most sense to me for niche hardware, by far. It's better for Fanatec and better for the enthusiast. Good for Fanatec!
A downside is that since they are active online is for two internet effects I coined long ago to kick in. Forum Frenzy, whereby some might e-punish a company, and then others pile on. I have seen folks experience some issue with a product and then be openly encouraged on the forums to post all about it online at multiple forums, youtube, etc to pressure a company. It can be like a gang/thug thing at times. Ironically if a company is less present online this is much less of an issue, irregardless of actual problems experienced by end users.
The other effect is what I term Forum Correct, which is comparable to Political Correctness. Forums can massively constrict ideas and creativity, a kind of lemming effect. "Come on Noobie, use the Search Button" or "Wow that guy has a lot of Forum Cred, therefore his claims need no facts, validation, or verification…i will do what he/she suggests so that the forum won't question my own ideas so that I will be accepted by these people I have never met and for whom I don't even know their names or much about them". Just sprinkle on some FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) and then things can snowball. And of course all the happy users and those who experienced great service from Fanatec (like me) don't post about it multiple times per day.
Last edited:
ItsHim
Premium
- 1,414
- Bavaria/Germany
You know that we sold a 7 digit number of wheels so far and have been in the wheel business years before Logitech ever made a wheel?
Of course we are still much smaller but it is more fun to be Porsche than Toyota.
Well, thanks for the info. As Endor is a stock company, I've read your paperwork some time ago.
That's your way of looking at things. Amazon offers a no hassle return policy, and in recent time, they refunded me 100 % of the original purchase price when a product was defective and still under the 2 year warranty. No questions asked.
Thanks for the offer, but I must decline. I'm not convinced I would be satisfied by the way repairs or returning of defective goods are handled.
JogoAsobi
Premium
- 2,578
The reply does not seem to address the original post.
Unless perhaps one German's command of English is more articulate than the others'.
I don't think the "showroom" invite was extended to him back last year, why now?
Last edited:
- 135
FYI I was looking at trading in prices for the DFGT on Amazon, and they went up lol.
- 3,239
- New York
- thepatriots
From Logitechs FB-Site:
"Ehtisham here, GM for Logitech Gaming, with an update on Logitech G-Series. We've tightened our focus on PC gaming, concentrating on what we believe are the most important products we can deliver to the gaming community high performance PC gaming gear. The whole G-Series team has a deep love for PC gaming and is committed to the community. Thanks to all of you for your continued support.
Stay tuned. Great things to come.
Ehtisham Rabbani
General Manager, Logitech G-Series"
I consider the G27 as part of G-Series, so at least there is some hope...
Few...
- 6,598
- United Kingdom
- MSTER232
- PS3 =/= Xbox 360
- 3,446
- GTP_Coxis
- Coxis
I just read through this entire thread and I can't help it but to feel a little bit heart-broken by everything I've read, especially Amar's posts. I can't say I was surprised by hearing the news, but I was surprised to see how bad it really is.
Let's face it guys, we love sim racing. We are passionate about our "sport" but how many of us are out there? It's easy to think that since the G wheels are part of their G series, they will remain, but I really doubt it. I obviously don't have any facts to back this up, but I'd be willing to bet that the DFGT made a bigger profit to Logi than the G27... and that is, because the DFGT is more of a mainstream gaming product than the G wheels. The DFGT was one of GT's official wheels and I bet many non-sim gamers bought it just because it was an officially licensed product for the PS3.
The saddest part is, that even though they weren't top of the line, cutting edge wheels, they were tremendously popular and reasonably priced. Their wheels, being the most readily available out there contributed in part (no matter how small or big) to the growth of sim racing. I can say this for sure, because I was a part of this demographic. My first wheel was a DFP that I bought in GT4 times. I was amazed to see how the wheel "moved on its own" and that it had 900 degrees of rotation. Later, I discovered that the wheel worked on the PC and started messing around with sims like LFS and rFactor.
For third world countries such as my own, it almost literally means no wheel availability at all. Logitech, being a relatively large company with presence in many countries around the world offers many of their products here, but such is not the case for companies like Thrustmaster and Fanatec. Thrustmaster doesn't even have offices in Mexico like Logitech, and Fanatec won't ship to Mexico even from their USA webshop. I've asked.
Either way, I realize this has been going on for a while now, even if I didn't read Amar's posts in 2010, it was pretty easy to infer. Computing is shifting from PCs and laptops to phones and tablets, gaming is shifting from hardcore, PC gaming to light, casual console gaming in your living room. I guess it was only a matter of time.
Sad times.
Let's face it guys, we love sim racing. We are passionate about our "sport" but how many of us are out there? It's easy to think that since the G wheels are part of their G series, they will remain, but I really doubt it. I obviously don't have any facts to back this up, but I'd be willing to bet that the DFGT made a bigger profit to Logi than the G27... and that is, because the DFGT is more of a mainstream gaming product than the G wheels. The DFGT was one of GT's official wheels and I bet many non-sim gamers bought it just because it was an officially licensed product for the PS3.
The saddest part is, that even though they weren't top of the line, cutting edge wheels, they were tremendously popular and reasonably priced. Their wheels, being the most readily available out there contributed in part (no matter how small or big) to the growth of sim racing. I can say this for sure, because I was a part of this demographic. My first wheel was a DFP that I bought in GT4 times. I was amazed to see how the wheel "moved on its own" and that it had 900 degrees of rotation. Later, I discovered that the wheel worked on the PC and started messing around with sims like LFS and rFactor.
For third world countries such as my own, it almost literally means no wheel availability at all. Logitech, being a relatively large company with presence in many countries around the world offers many of their products here, but such is not the case for companies like Thrustmaster and Fanatec. Thrustmaster doesn't even have offices in Mexico like Logitech, and Fanatec won't ship to Mexico even from their USA webshop. I've asked.
Either way, I realize this has been going on for a while now, even if I didn't read Amar's posts in 2010, it was pretty easy to infer. Computing is shifting from PCs and laptops to phones and tablets, gaming is shifting from hardcore, PC gaming to light, casual console gaming in your living room. I guess it was only a matter of time.
Sad times.
- 4,145
- Ottawa
Mayaman
thank you for this post, totally agree.
bermudakid
(Banned)
- 2,561
- Connecticut
- BermudaKID
- BermudaKID
- 23,800
- Philippines
A lack of physical retail doesn't hurt as much in the US and Europe, but out here, e-commerce is still in its infancy. Heck, even with the prevalence of internet in many cities, few people I know in real life with GT5 are able to play it online due to the quality of our internet service.
Logitech was always the easy solution. Sure, not every store carried their wheels, but they were easy enough to find compared to the alternatives.
This is not a slight on your products, by the way... and given Logitech no longer produces, I may consider purchasing one in the future as I no longer have any decent alternatives. ;
Logitech was always the easy solution. Sure, not every store carried their wheels, but they were easy enough to find compared to the alternatives.
This is not a slight on your products, by the way... and given Logitech no longer produces, I may consider purchasing one in the future as I no longer have any decent alternatives. ;
Similar threads
