Following a significant drop in sales and profit, Logitech has announced to phase out several product categories, including console peripherals.
“We have also identified a number of product categories that no longer fit with our current strategic direction,” CEO Bracken P. Darrell commented. “As a result, we have initiated the process to divest our remote controls and digital video security categories, and we plan to discontinue other non-strategic products, such as speaker docks and console gaming peripherals, by the end of Calendar Year 2013.”
While this certainly is bad news for the console community, it may also put Logitech’s line of sim racing wheels in jeopardy. While the current G27 isn’t a console peripheral as such, it also works on the Playstation 3 and it remains to be seen whether it will be included in the cut.
Whatever the outcome will be, Logitech has been neglecting racing games for quite a while. Some 7-8 years ago, Logitech was the key player in terms of steering wheels as their Momo & Momo Force wheel captured significant market share, followed by the very successful G25.
Since then, the company has lost massive ground to old and new competitors. While both Fanatec and Thrustmaster have been pushing innovation on the steering wheel market for the benefit of sim racers world wide, Logitech’s response to the new competition has been more than lukewarm. The G27 was more or less a slight refresh of the popular G25 and ever since its release, there have been no indications that Logitech is working on any new serious sim racing wheel.
It looks as if sim racers waiting for a successor might have to switch to another brand sooner or later as well…
