WOW mouse took two years to make

By Robert Purchese Published 15 October, 2010

Blizzard helped craft €90 dream machine.

Blizzard and SteelSeries' spent two years making the new World of Warcraft: Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse.

Apparently the slitted glowing design "evokes" the armour of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm villain Deathwing the Destroyer.

How much does it cost? €90.

But that's because it has 14 buttons, "fine tuned ergonomics", 16-million colour illumination options, four pulsation levels, up to 5040 DPI/CPI and a lift distance of up to 5mm. Incredible.

You can also store a WOW character profile directly to the mouse and a further nine in the software.

What's more, you get 2.5 metres of braided nylon cable with it.

SteelSeries' CEO Bruce Hawver said the new mouse was created using feedback from "thousands" of WOW players - "both Horde and Alliance".

"For two years, our R&D team worked hard with Blizzard Entertainment to incorporate the great feedback and to enhance the mouse technology and game integration," he said. The result is a "more comfortable, intuitive and ultimately better experience".

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (48) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • TelexStar #1 2 years ago

    Looks rather like the old style Razor gaming mice.

  • telboy007 #2 2 years ago

    Phwoar, look at the buttons on that!

  • Ryboy #3 2 years ago

    No thanks.

  • ladbroke #4 2 years ago

    A fool and their money, etc etc...

  • butler` #5 2 years ago

    It shows how far steel series have come from being endorsed by HeatoN to co-developing products with Blizzard.

    And as utterly unecessary as it is as a mouse, I'm sure they'll sell.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #6 2 years ago

    Mmm hmmm. That's what I'm talking 'bout.

  • thes #7 2 years ago

    That price and its not even wireless?!!

  • bad09 #8 2 years ago

    Ha I saw this yesterday on display in a local PCWorld funnily enough (just nosing, I'm not silly enough to buy anything in there!). Mental looking mouse! :)

  • deriko24 #9 2 years ago

    i'll stay with with old cheapo mouse thanks

  • Benno #10 2 years ago

    wireless mice are for housewives, not gamers

  • Tonne #11 2 years ago

    is it me or is that mouse about the size of a brick?
    look at that thing,

  • paulf #12 2 years ago

    @butler`

    sure there are a lot of buttons that may seem uneccessary but some classes in wow have a lot of spells/abilities (too many to easily hit whilst using the wasd for movement) so this mouse would be useful in that aspect

  • Markusdragon #13 2 years ago

    Oh look, Activision's released another peripheral! What a surprise!

  • bad09 #14 2 years ago

    "Oh look, Activision's released another peripheral! What a surprise!"

    You should see all the stuff they are rolling out for Black Ops :)
    Edited by bad09 at 15/10/10 @ 10:33

  • FortysixterUK #15 2 years ago

    It looks like its right handed. ( I play left hand but AM right handed , so this would be uncomfortable to use )
    It looks like a bit of a silly shape regardless.
    It is massively over priced.
    Mechandise crap.

  • butler` #16 2 years ago

    I play left hand but AM right handed

    how did you get to into that situation? :p

  • Spekingur #17 2 years ago

    This is purely for the show-off factor. I really want this for my next LAN meet-up.

  • Deckard1 #18 2 years ago

    I'm getting one, but it’s just because the chicks will dig it. I'm guaranteed to get laid if I have one of them!!

  • mkreku #19 2 years ago

    It looks like a giant bug.

  • asphaltcowboy #20 2 years ago

    Anyone else think it looks like a left-handed mouse? The chunky bit on the right seems to suggest you might actually have to use your ring finger to press a button over on that side... does anyone do that?!

  • pr0ev0lution #21 2 years ago

    @Benno any real pc gamer uses a wired mouse, wireless are terrible for pc gaming.

    @Markusdragon blizzard have been releasing steelseries endorsed stuff long before the merger with activsion this is just a version to celebrate the release of the new expansion no different than microsoft releasing a custom controller for fable 3.


    as for the mouse looks decent but i'm gonna stick with my razer naga and if i had to get a new mouse i'd get a rzer naga cataclysm special edition

  • geeza2020 #22 2 years ago

    I've got an idea Blizzard, how's about putting your time and money into GETTING FUCKING DIABLO 3 FINSHED AND NOT PUTTING OUT CRAP LIKE THIS!!

  • Skurmedel #23 2 years ago

    You can play games just fine with a wireless mouse, just like you can play them with Wi-Fi. What equipment you have doesn't define whether you're "real" or not because it is all a matter of preference.

  • VicViper #24 2 years ago

    I conflicted about this, on one hand I would like all those buttons(pun not intended) but 90 quid for a mouse is pretty steep, maybe I need to look for a second hand or eBayed naga or something.

  • Seoh #25 2 years ago

    Eh??

    Don't most mmo veterans belittle people that use a mouse to much since hotkeys are so much quicker, with that being the case why bother with the ridiculously high DPI?

  • Nephirion #26 2 years ago

    its 90 euros so approx 80 gbp rrp.

  • patriot #27 2 years ago

    Nice, but the Naga has more buttons for roughly half the price. these might be easier to access though.

  • sesskie #28 2 years ago

    @benno, @proevolution

    Wireless gaming mice nowadays offer up to 5700dpi and 1000 reports per second, so the same as your corded mice. Any difference you may or may not percieve is purely in your mind, and in any real-life situation, the difference in your gaming performance between corded or wireless mice is negligible at best, but in practicality non-existant.

  • kangarootoo #29 2 years ago

    I'm not remotely interested in WoW, but that still looks rather cool. If I were a PC gamer I'd consider it for general gaming use (though I realise there are other bonkers-loads-of-buttons gaming mice out there that also look pretty cool).

  • butler` #30 2 years ago

    Any difference you may or may not percieve is purely in your mind, and in any real-life situation, the difference in your gaming performance between corded or wireless mice is negligible at best, but in practicality non-existant.

    I've got a percieved difference for you. Batteries.

  • sneetch #31 2 years ago

    @Skurmedel
    You can play games just fine with a wireless mouse, just like you can play them with Wi-Fi. What equipment you have doesn't define whether you're "real" or not because it is all a matter of preference.

    Yeah "real gamers" use wired game pads too. I have a rather nice high DPI wireless mouse, I found that a cable was a pain in the ass as dragging it about could knock off my aim a little bit in FPS's. If that means I'm not a "real gamer" then I suspect that's something to be thankful for.

    The button count could make this very useful for gaming in general but I have to wonder how accessible they all are? Some of them look like they'd be a pain in the ass to access.

  • randompanda #32 2 years ago

    Why the fuck did this take 2 years to make?

  • wowami #33 2 years ago

    the sooner Microsoft remake this the better..
    [link url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-D67-00005-Trackball-Optical/dp/B00004Y7MT
    ]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-D67-00...[/link]

    The three i have are growinig old very gracefully

  • superted1974 #34 2 years ago

    I remember buying a Naksha ? mouse for my Amiga - That was a big improvement over the bundled one.

    This one - not so sure - feels like cashing in!

  • Spekingur #35 2 years ago

    Almost looks similar to
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-HKA-00003-Sidewinder-Mouse...

    What I would really want though is to see the Sidewinder joysticks coming back. Those were great.
    Not many games that use joysticks nowadays though.

  • Raiten #36 2 years ago

    There's one reason why a mouse with cord beats cordless mouses. Simply enough.. when you finaly after loosing enough in any game you play, enter your angry mouse tossing frenzy, the mouse with cord gets stoped from flying towards the wall thanks to the cord stopping it, while the cordless mouse proceeds its unfortunate flight in to tiiny wiiny pieces.

  • 5h1nj1 #37 2 years ago

    What does "lift distance of up to 5mm" mean?

  • darkmorgado #38 2 years ago

    So in two years no-one asked "can left-handed gamers use this?"

    Sick of not being able to buy this swishy things just because I'm a lefty.

  • KiLlerKnight #39 2 years ago

    'Why the fuck did this take 2 years to make?'
    Answer: Because the last WOW mouse was shit and we actually just use 2 months to make, but 2 years sounds better.

    And btw: 'Real gamers' who still think wireless mice are not good for gaming should come out of their cave and step into the 21st century.
    Edited by KiLlerKnight at 15/10/10 @ 13:04

  • Byzanite #40 2 years ago

    What's more, you get 2.5 metres of braided nylon cable with it.

    Maybe it is wireless but the nylon cable is for tying the misses up when she interrupts your WoW session?
    I wouldnt know though.. I dont play WoW..

  • levitate #41 2 years ago

    Negging retrend for Great Justice!

    Also, wicked looking mouse. But I rather hold on to the one I have. More important to have a stable gfx card and/or processor.

  • LondonSquare82 #42 2 years ago

    Isn't this the same mouse I bought a year ago? Or is it an updated version of that? Looks the same to me.

  • Kami #43 2 years ago

    All this moaning about wired vs wireless mice... I use a magnetic mouse. The mousepad is wired up to the computer but the mouse itself is wireless - and is activated by being on the pad (magnetics = magic!). I've never gone back to a gaming mouse since - it's so precise and sleek and makes sense.

    And at £20, also significantly cheaper than the vast majority of gaming mice... this is very pretty but if you're clever/sensible you can keybind everything to 12345, Shift+12345QE, Alt+12345QE and Ctrl+12345QE. Makes life in-game a lot easier.

    But hey, if you need a mouse like this to give you The Edge, knock yourself out... as much as I love collectibles and showy stuff, sometimes I think we should be aware that you're not paying for the device sometimes as much as the name attached to the device... and you can get much better deals by looking around at the alternatives.

    Still, it is very pretty... so I can understand why some are lusting over it! :)

  • Whitster #44 2 years ago

    Considering WOW, like all MMORPGs I've attempted to get into, consists of little more than clicking things, what was wrong with a regular mouse?

  • arcam #45 2 years ago

    @Whitster

    Hotkeys my man, hotkeys. Like Starcraft it's mostly all possible with mouse clicks but only new players would play it that way for long.

  • roquey Verified Lead Quality Assurance Tester and Compliance Specialist, Universally Speaking #46 2 years ago

    @Kami : oh no, you used teh word 'Edge' now Timothy Langdell is gonna come after your ass, oh wait he cant :D On the real issue here. my mouse cost me a tenner and it does what i need to when playing MMOs. Why would i go spend 80 for a few buttons.

  • Kami #47 2 years ago

    "oh no, you used teh word 'Edge' now Timothy Langdell is gonna come after your ass, oh wait he cant"

    No he can't, and if he ever did I'd bend his spine so out of shape he'd be eating through his rectum.

    My point, however, stands - there's a "gaming" mouse with 16 buttons from a lesser-known company for £35... so what exactly are we paying for again oh yes that is right the branding.

  • albinac #48 2 years ago

    lots of buttons, which one dose which.

  • Kami #49 2 years ago

    "And btw: 'Real gamers' who still think wireless mice are not good for gaming should come out of their cave and step into the 21st century."

    Depends on what you term as "wireless". Technically my mouse isn't wireless - the mouse itself is but it needs the magnetic mousepad to work, which IS wired (and therefore makes it non-wireless). It's the same problem as most wireless things - wireless things require batteries, and them dying in the middle of an important raid/map/table/porn download (delete where applicable) can be a right main in the ass - not to mention that you really cannot get away from there being interface lag sometimes, which can be a problem as well. Serious gamers do tend to prefer wired for this very reason - when fractions of seconds can really count, you don't want any interface lag whatsoever...

    "Don't most mmo veterans belittle people that use a mouse to much since hotkeys are so much quicker, with that being the case why bother with the ridiculously high DPI?"

    I may have done it in a sense myself but I don't deride these mice that much - for example, I'd probably put it in a nice airtight box and keep it as a collectible. They have a purpose, but my overriding point is if you really do need a mouse with spare buttons to macro up - there are cheaper alternatives. This mouse, what you're paying for is the Blizzard and World of Warcraft licensing tags on it. A Razer mouse (still well-known but slightly less than WoW) will set you back £60, whilst a Sharkoon (lower end of the spectrum) which has on-board memory for macros will set you back about £30. Both companies do very pretty mice - extremely so, in fact (kind of a prerequisite that gaming mice have to be rather sexy as well). But as you scale down the roster in terms of branding, you do realise sometimes the branding makes no sense. You can get high-DPI gaming mice with that functionality for a far better price - like all things, you're paying for the name on the box. If you can live with it being a smaller, less well-known make you're likely to get a better deal...

    Simply put, if you buy this - do so knowing it is likely to be a collectible and treat it as such... if you want a functioning gaming mouse with macro buttons, there are more options out there that won't cripple your bank balance quite as hard. :)

    "Meanwhile in Africa: thousands starve to death."

    Hundreds starve to death in European countries that are seen to be significantly well-off. Poverty is a shitty thing, but I would say most gamers are charitable when they need to be... but they do like shiny things as well. And no amount of guilt trip will get between a gamer and his or her new shiny...
    Edited by Kami at 16/10/10 @ 03:06

  • darth_paul #50 2 years ago

    i say: milk the WOW crowd. theyre useless anyway

  • Sunyavadin #51 2 years ago

    That price and its not even wireless?!!

    A gamer would have to be crazy to use a wireless mouse. At least until they make them charge wirelessly too.

    Last thing any MMO player wants is for their mouse to crap out on them while tanking the boss of a high end raid...