Dell targets gaming

Johannesburg - Computer-maker Dell is making a bigger push into gaming with the launch of its gaming line, Alienware Software Command Centre and eSports Training Centres.  

Tailored for gamers, the new Software Command Centre is a place for players of all skill levels, from novice to expert. 

It will help gamers optimise and tune PCs and peripherals to their gaming needs and will centralise gaming libraries in a new menu layout.

Chris Buchanan,  Dell Client Solutions Director for Southern Africa said that gamers have long been unshakable supporters of the PC. 

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“We have also embraced more casual players, because gaming is for everyone. The new Alienware Software Command Centre proves this: it’s a place for both the hardcore and neophytes to start playing, tweaking and customising without any fuss, fit for every skill level,” Buchanan said.

Launching concurrently with the new command centre is AlienFX 2.0, the second generation of Alienware’s proprietary in-game lighting system that works across Alienware PCs, mice and keyboards.  

In addition to these updates, Dell and Alienware also recently worked with Tobii to infuse eye-tracking technologies into eSports tournaments for a new spectator experience.

At CES both unveiled the new Alienware eSports Training Facility is a dedicated eSports training centre, in Los Angeles. 

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It includes an in-office chef, sports psychologists, nutritionists, dedicated coach and analyst and training spaces.

Internationally recognised video game commentator Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner, recently told Fin24 that eSports is set to become as big as traditional sport.

Chaloner, from Brighton, England said that youth are more interested in streaming video rather than watching traditional TV, and this has resulted in e-sport players and commentators “becoming more famous than TV stars”.

Nicholas Hall chair of the Interactive entertainment South Africa (Iesa), a lobby group for the gaming industry, said that the video game entertainment industry is the largest entertainment industry in the world. 

In 2015 it was estimated to worth $92.7bn with the consumer market for games worth R2.2bn with local developers producing content for companies like Disney.