If you’re a PC gamer, you’re likely to know the name Corsair. The thirty year old hardware manufacturer makes practically everything you would need to build your own PC, as well as all the peripherals you would need to go with it.
That includes the PC case, RAM, PSU, solid state drives, fans flash drives, capture cards, monitors, keyboards, mice, mousepads… you get the idea.
You’re less likely to know the name Fanatec unless you’re a sim racing enthusiast. Fanatec lies at the higher end of sim racing, selling racing wheels so accurate you can switch out wheelbases between the wheels, to simulate different kinds of racing cars , and also get on different platforms. Fanatec also makes cockpits, pedals, shifters, etc, all with different levels of accuracy and premium production, and most of which at prices that most gamers will never afford, or even want to pay.
But Fanatec has been one of those companies that makes sim racing wheels so well, that they’ve become popular with the racers themselves. Their quality and popularity led to them becoming sponsors of several real world competitions, including the Formula 1 and GT World Challenge.
But here is where we get to the bad news. In the past few years, Fanatec had been suffering from financial trouble, to the point that they just ousted their founder and CEO, Thomas Jackmeier. Thomas founded Fanatec’s parent company, Endor AG, from a passion for making video game peripherals. Today he works at the company in their product design division only.
As reported by PC Gamer, Corsair has announced plans to buy Endor AG, and along the way absorb their €70 million debt. Since Endor AG was planning restructuring prior to this announcement, this could not have come at a better time for the company.
It also means that Corsair is itself transforming into a sim racing company. They can now make prebuilt sim racing PCs, complete with the wheels and cockpits now. They will compete in this space with other vaunted brands like Logitech and Thrustmaster, as well as upstart newcomer Moza.
They are also likely to become new partners for Sony and Microsoft, who had both been working with Fanatec to make racing wheels for their consoles. And who knows? Maybe Corsair could finagle a deal to make their high end racing wheels work with the Switch 2, or whatever Nintendo decides to call it.
While it’s an exciting possibility for gamers, that could also save a lot of jobs, this is all hinging on regulatory approval from Endor AG’s home country, Germany. Not just for fans, but for even more people employed in the video game industry, let’s all hope that this deal pulls through, but also, that Corsair manages to enter this new venture successfully.
