Channel Post speaks with George Rouppas, Consumer Category Manager, Personal Systems Middle East – HP about the company’s products and innovations for the gaming community.
How big is the gaming market in the Middle East and what is the significance of gaming to your overall business in the region?
The gaming industry has evolved and come a long way in our region. The Middle East’s video games industry is worth more than $1 billion, and is expected to rise to $4.4bn by 2022, such growth means that the regional gaming growth is faster than the global average, which only shows us the potential to grow in this area. With several new launches to our OMEN portfolio, this year, as well as introducing innovative and latest technologies, we have noticed a positive and significant growth in our overall business in the Middle East.
What products drive your gaming business in the Middle East?
The OMEN lineup is the star of our gaming portfolio that drives our gaming business in the Middle East. The portfolio includes OMEN X Desktop, OMEN by HP 15 laptop, OMEN by HP 17 laptop and OMEN Desktop Tower, as well as OMEN gaming monitors along with various OMEN gaming accessories.
What innovations have you introduced in your latest range of gaming portfolio?
While all of our OMEN products have recent innovation and technology embedded in them, one of our latest launches, the OMEN X desktop is something we are extremely excited about. Designed for gaming from the ground up, this desktop provides powerful gaming and innovative cooling to easily take on the latest AAA games, even at the highest settings. The OMEN X desktop comes in galvanised steel case that was designed for unprecedented upgradability with industry standard components and a spacious, chambered interior.
What will you be offering to gamers going forward in order to stay ahead of the competition?
Today, gamers demand optimal and desktop-level performance to deliver the best frame rates and responsiveness to beat the competition. Further, they have also developed an appetite for devices that doesn’t compromise performance for mobility. In the light of this, HP continues to study how games compete at the highest levels in order to develop the ideal gaming machine that responds to their needs. This includes the elements of delivering high-end components, advanced thermal solutions, fast and responsive displays and software tools that help them push their gaming hardware to the limit.
VR as a technology seems to be influencing gamers. How do you see the VR market evolving and how is HP trying to tap into this market?
VR content in gaming continues to increase. In the gaming industry, we are starting to see more gaming developers incorporate VR elements in their upcoming game titles in response to the growing demand from consumers, for a more immersive gameplay experience. For gamers, this should be a good time to invest in VR equipment especially with an influx of new gaming titles that are VR-enabled, coming to market early next year. At HP, we ensure that our gamers can take full advantage by offering the VR backpack to be used with our OMEN lineup. The VR backpack provides free movement during gameplay and a truly immersive, untethered experience. It also comes equipped with full docking capabilities and swappable batteries that enable extended VR sessions without the need to shut down the PC.
