While no official announcement has been made, Microsoft appears poised to exit the gaming peripherals market for all gaming products outside of its X-Box games system.
Resellers have said that gaming peripherals bearing the Sidewinder brand such as joysticks, gamepads and racing wheels have been pulled from Microsoft"s catalogues.
"I have certainly heard the rumours," said Marco Manera, general manager for Logitech Australia. "Resellers don"t want to lose the PC-gaming category - while there is not a great margin on a PC or games console, they are always certain of high margins on the peripherals." Manera said that Logitech was the largest provider of PC gaming products such as joysticks and gamepads, Microsoft came a close second.