In mid-July, I had the opportunity to meet someone I am sure most of you would like to shake hands with. He is credited with being the initiative behind the Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 coming back into production. His name is Kevin Flick and he is the go-to guy in Microsoft’s PC peripheral division. We met Kevin back when the IME was re-launching and we ran those awesome promotions for original and new IMEs on GotFrag Promo. Back in Spring he contacted us with what he said was “some very fun news.” This, of course, meant I had to fly out to the GotFrag offices in New York to meet with him and some other GotFrag familiar faces. Lee Chen, Trevor Schmidt, and I had dinner with Kevin and discussed many topics from the art of trash talk to the state of gaming today. Even with all the comfortable chatter, Kevin would not budge and would only tell us that he had a new peripheral to show us that was almost two years in the making. Needless to say, we all had a good time and we were excited to see this new product.

The following morning, we all met at the GotFrag offices and got set up for some serious gaming/abuse time. Kevin did some more talking, but I wasn’t listening because the white box behind him had my undivided attention, as it contained the new toy. The game plan was to spend several hours fragging with the new stuff and give some feedback. There was still time to change the product before launch and they wanted our thoughts - this was a new and awesome opportunity for us to influence the product directly.

Kevin had to keep moving the box he had the product in because I repeatedly tried to open it. However, he eventually succumbed to my internal demons, wrapped up his speech to the four of us, and opened the box. In the custom-cut foam sat three identical mice. Lifting one out he said “Here it is”, and my initial reaction was one of sadness.  This thing looked incredibly uncomfortable and the side buttons looked wierd.  I was disappointed until he handed it to me and i tried it out.

Kevin and his team wanted to bring something new to the gaming market, but most of the ideas they were coming up with were already out there. Razer has the angular, symmetrical market cornered, Logitech had the curvy, ergonomic market cornered and Microsoft had already seen tremendous success with the IME 3.0. What was left? They went back to the drawing board and came up with something just extreme enough with a slight twist. Kevin noticed my concern and encouraged me to give it a shot. I obliged, plugged it in, and began my assault on this poor prototype. More on the performance in a bit.

As far as the others’ initial reactions: by the time each of us had our hands on the mouse, we didn’t want to give it up. We had small criticisms and suggestions, but ultimately we felt they had done their job and done it well. I, of course (it might be in my job description), attempted to snag one, but this Kevin Flick guy is really sharp… and I am kind of obvious. At the end of the day we were all very pleased at Microsoft’s new entry and pretty bummed when Kevin had to run to the airport…with the mice. A great visit and a fantastic opportunity.