Corsair, the computer peripherals and hardware company, recently jumped onto the hardcore-gaming bandwagon by launching a series of gaming PCs. While the most top-end one, the ‘Ultimate Dream PC', is aimed at gaming enthusiasts who are willing to shell out a whopping Rs 2.5 lakh for the gaming station, Corsair also has a more affordable one for mid-level gamers, the ‘Gamer's Dream' PC, which is slotted at Rs 99,000. The third option lets hardcore gaming fans and over-clockers customise the PC from scratch, with Corsair providing most of the hardware coupled with a bunch of gaming peripherals from Razer, Logitech, Asus and the like.

The company, which had entered the gaming PC arena at the start of 2000, also tried its hand at cache memory cards and high-end servers. In three years of presence in the Indian market, the company had witnessed huge growth in the high-end memory peripherals. One of the most popular products is the uber-ruggedised Flash Voyager.

With a renewed focus on the gaming sector, the company is attempting to break away from the image of being just memory manufacturers in India. Its main target now is the educated gamer who knows exactly what he wants from his high-end gaming system.

“As little as four years ago, India wasn't a hardcore gaming market but it has taken great strides in that direction over a period of time,” says Shane Dennison, Marketing Manager, Corsair.

Despite the strides, India is till a very nascent market when it comes to gaming compared with areas such as Japan and the US. A study shows that Indians gamers spend an average of only about 20 hours per week at their stations. In a population of more than a billion, 7.2 million people indulge in online gaming whereas the numbers hover around 9 million in case of offline gamers.

Scott Thirlwell, Director of Sales, APAC Corsair, visited a couple of LAN parties and other gaming events before the company decided to launch the product in India, and found that although the gaming crowd is an enthusiastic one, it still is just a fraction of the population.

Why would Corsair decide to launch high-end gaming PCs in a market that's still finding its way to hardcore gaming? Scott says, “We decided that we wanted to be here from the very beginning and work towards developing the market.”

The plans, however, do not involve increasing the company's network of distributors in India.

That Corsair is targeting a very niche audience is evident from the price tags that the computers come with! The Dream PC will cost you around Rs 2.5 lakh whereas the slightly ‘lower-end' version will cost you about Rs 99,000, as pointed out earlier.

How many units do they expect to sell in a market where people shell out about Rs 40,000 on an average for a gaming PC? About 10 in all for this financial year, says Thirlwell, adding that this would be a very realistic expectation!

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