Wolfking has officially introduced its Warrior Xxtreme gaming keyboard, which costs $79.99. Mac users will have to hold their noses, though, because the only way to get one, at least through the holidays, is to order it from Dell’s online store.
The Warrior Xxtreme is a new “2-in-1 PC gamepad and keyboard.” It sports a very unusual key layout that Wolfking claims is optimized for people who want to play first person shooters, real time strategy games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games.
Descended from Wolfking’s similarly Mac-compatible Warrior keypad and Timberwolf keyboard, the Warrior Xxtreme gathers all the keys that are typically mapped in today’s computer games and reconfigures them into a round setup that is more ergonomically effective for game players. Movement keys like the W, A, S and D keys are within easy reach, while numbers, other letters and function keys are distributed in a spread pattern that’s easy for your hand to hit.
The Warrior Xxtreme goes one step further, however — in addition to the Warrior-style keypad on the left, the right side of the keyboard features a second keyboard with a modified QWERTY layout, also in a circular pattern — so in addition to playing games, you can also chat or issue text commands with your right hand. The keyboard adds a set of volume controls, two USB 1.1 ports and blue backlighting underneath the keys, so you can see the letters and numbers even in low light.
Neither Dell’s gaming site nor Wolfking’s Web site had been updated with information about the Warrior Xxtreme as Macworld posted this article.