This article was written by Nick Scibetta and originally appeared on GameCrate.
In the saturated marketplace of gaming peripherals, companies try to woo customers by loading computer mice, keyboards, and headsets with extra features — some innovative, some useful, and others downright gimmicky. Consumers debate the merits of the features and the associated prices, and the fortunes of companies rise and fall as a result.
But there’s another, less-often-discussed part of peripheral marketing strategy that has very little to do with the actual device: the product names. With names inspired by everything from mythological creatures to robotic sequences of letters and numbers, the monikers of these devices range from inspired to downright puzzling.
Let’s take a closer look at the way popular companies Razer, Logitech, and MAD CATZ name their products.
Razer
Razer has a thing for snakes, spiders, and other creepy creatures. It’s hardly surprising, given that their logo is a menacing snake-star thing. All their mice are named after snakes, either real or mythological. Their keyboard names come from various arachnids, even the DeathStalker (which is apparently a kind of scorpion). Headsets are all named after either sea monsters or sharks, which is an interesting (if weird) theme for headphones.
Typical Razer names: Ouroboros, Mamba, Naga, DeathStalker, Tiamat, Kraken
Best Name: DeathAdder
Weirdest Name: BlackShark
Logitech
The names for Logitech’s gaming peripherals are some of the least interesting in the industry, with nearly every mouse, keyboard, and headset put out by the company following a basic “G and then some numbers” naming scheme.
While these all-business names are much more professional and grown-up-sounding than other examples the peripheral industry has to offer, they can also make it tricky to distinguish between the different Logitech products. Which headset was it that you wanted again, the G230, G430, or G930? Hopefully you can remember, because there’s a hundred dollars of difference and drastically varying features among these similarly-named products.
Perhaps for this very reason, Logitech’s two newest gaming mice, the G402 and G502, feature dramatic code-names in addition to the usual G### designation.
Typical Logitech names: G602, G19s, G27.
Best Name: G402 Hyperion Fury.
Weirdest Name: G502 Proteus Core.
The Hyperion Fury and the Proteus Core may be signs that Logitech is considering a move beyond their traditional name scheme. That said, they already seem well on their way to establishing a new name formula: “Greek Name plus Intense Four Letter Noun.” I look forward to future mice from Logitech including the G802 Apollo Rage, the G903 Hades Fist, and the G003 Thanatos Coil.
MAD CATZ
Talk about consistency! MAD CATZ currently has about a dozen different gaming mice on the market that are all named “R.A.T” and then a number or other designation. Though presented as an acronym, R.A.T. doesn’t actually stand for anything, and this stylistic choice extends throughout many other MAD CATZ peripherals as well, from their M.O.U.S. mice to their S.T.R.I.K.E. keyboards.
I’m not exactly sure why the premiere product for a company called CATZ is a R.A.T., but I guess that’s kind of clever, maybe?
Typical MAD CATZ names: R.A.T. TE, M.O.U.S. 9, S.T.R.I.K.E. 7
Best Name: M.M.O. 7 (at least this acronym actually stands for something)
Weirdest Name: C.T.R.L.R. Mobile Gamepad
C.T.R.L.R. is both a fake acronym AND impossible to actually pronounce. That’s…an odd naming choice. Anyway, I’m personally going to skip the C.T.R.L.R. because I’m waiting for the G.T.E.R.L.T.Q. 7 to come out.
