Steelseries Apex keyboard customised for Guild Wars 2

Steelseries announced an addition to their keyboard lineup, the Apex and Apex RAW, two membrane-based offerings that included full or customisable back-lighting, a built-in wrist rest, and a double-sized spacebar key.

To celebrate the success of Guild Wars 2, Steelseries has revealed a special edition of the Apex RAW, styled to fit with Guild Wars 2 players. Steelseries says the Guild Wars 2 keyboard will be available to order on their web store for US $79.99 (approx R800), with retail availability later in the year.

Local distributor Megarom was contacted, but did not respond with pricing or availability at the time of publication.

The keyboard gets a smooth matte black plastic finish with a custom paint job designed by ArenaNet, the game’s developers. The keys also get decked out with a black matte paint finish with the W, A, S, D and 1 through 5 keys in a lighter shade of grey. The default white back-lighting changes to a maroon red.

Steelseries says the Guild Wars 2 Apex RAW offers some enhancements from the original design that give the keyboard a unique look and feel. These enhancements include:

Raised macro-keys along the top and left side, which provide faster and more precise macro- combinations.
The addition of two small tactile bumps on the W-key to provide a faster return to WASD.
An enlarged space bar and added directional keys that support features that improve comfort and reaction time.
A SteelSeries key that allows the user to easily adjust brightness and disable the Windows key with no software required.
Two swappable feet that allow the user to adjust the keyboard’s angle to what is most comfortable

In addition, every single key on the Apex RAW is programmable and can be set inside the Steelseries Engine drivers to perform a second function. Macro recording functions are supported and additionally support programmable timings and delays. There are preset Macro functions for Guild Wars 2, although these can be replaced with custom functions quite easily.

In addition to the Guild Wars 2 gaming keyboard, Steelseries also offers a range of mice, headsets and mouse mats themed for Guild Wars 2 players.