People have been joking for a while about the exorbitant nature of weapon skins for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. They can range in the tens of thousands when the market feels like it.
But what’s more disturbing is when those skins start appearing in real-life — and products get bumped up by an exorbitant amount as as result.
The skin in question is Fade, a blended transition from an indigo and a deep purple to a sunset red and yellow. It looks rather nice on some weapons; if they’re the right kind, they can go for quite a whack on the market.
But it’s an old skin, having been released a couple of years ago. So automatically that means it’s nowhere near the most popular or best looking on the market. This Kill Confirmed USP skin looks outstanding and will set you back over $480 right now if you want to buy it outright. A Factory New model of a Dragon Lore AWP is going for US$1430. This AK can be picked up at a bargain for *cough* US$550.
Not much at all. What is nice about the whole system, as an aside, is the way designers and artists can have their works appreciated and valued in this fashion. So in that sense it’s nice to see companies like Steelseries take those designs and reskin their peripherals to suit.
A word of warning though: if you do take them up on their offer, you’ll be hit with a premium. And in the case of the latest SteelSeries Rival mouse, that premium amounts to an extra $40.
$40 on its own isn’t much. But when the outstanding, perfectly serviceable, non-skinned version of the mouse only costs $79 it’s quite a jump. If Ruslan Kogan’s outfit doesn’t offend you greatly, he’ll sell you a Rival for $69.
But the fancy Rival 300 Fade is going for a minimum of $119. MWAVE’s listing notes the original price is around $129, although some retailers might go well beyond that. AusPCMarket in Auburn, NSW, for instance, are charging a whopping $141.90 for the Fnatic-branded version of the Rival, which is almost $30 more than what other stores are asking.
Given that everything you’d care about is unchanged — the Rival 300 FADE has the same sensor as the original Rival, uses the same software, weighs the same and has the same physical specifications — hiking the price by 50% is bit of a bother.
The price of mice has crept up slowly over the years but when we’re at the stage where one costs you the same as a competitively priced mechanical keyboard, surely eyebrows have to be raised. For the cost of a Rival 300 Fade, you could get a 120GB SSD with room to spare. Pay a little bit more and you can get a 256GB SSD. A decent pair of headphones can be found for less than the 300 Fade. The ASUS Xnoar and Creative Audigy sound cards can be picked up for less too.
So word to the wise: not all that is new and shiny is worth your money. And while it’s nice that some of your favourite CS:GO skins will appear in real-life, just remember your hand’s going to be covering up that skin most of the time. And it won’t look quite as good when it’s been battered and worn down by dead skin and your sweaty gaming hand.
Save your money, and buy the original.
Note: Due to the fluid nature of the digital marketplace, the values of the weapon skins could have changed markedly by the time you read this. Just keep that in mind.
Comments
15 responses to “It’ll Cost You 50% More To Have Your Mouse Look Like A Counter-Strike Skin”
We’ve had kids gambling with CSGO weapon skins. Apparently there are sites that you can link to your steam wallet. You press the button and it takes 20c and gives you a random skin. Of course, stacked towards the house.
Kids excitedly told a teacher the got a skin worth $30 and sold it. Upon being pressed further, they had put over $50 into their wallet and it was now empty.
We blocked all the sites once we were informed.
My sure if I am misunderstanding here. So the kids parents gave him 50 dollar steam wallet and he blow it all buying 20 cent skins OR they found out that he initially had 50 dollar steam wallet but after buying from the dodgy site and selling the 30 dollar skin all his money is stolen gone?
Kid is super excited about making $30. Turns out that he spent $50 of his own money to get it.
When you say kids, are you talking like at a high school?
Yes.
Jesus. Any chance I could grab your email or Twitter and have a chat to you?
I’d rather not post my email publicly and I don’t have Twitter. How should I get in contact with you?
My email’s alex.walker@kotaku.com.au — send me something there from your preferred account.
Ah that clarified it. Thanks.
Not enough stickers
I have a simple answer for anyone who wants a mad looking peripheral.
Hydro-painting.
That is all.
Vom
I miss the days of free skins and purple/black textures from the skins that you didn’t install properly.
I enjoyed being able to change the actual model instead of just the colour.
Hitting people with a fish in 1.6.
Wow, that’s pretty lame. Bet Steelseries just looked at how much people are willing to pay for a digital skin, and figured those same people would have no issue what so ever with this, makes sense.