Peripherals producer Jsaux has introduced it’s delaying and redesigning its deliberate RGB Steam Deck dock, as reported by Gaming on Linux (opens in new tab). Jsaux alleges that its manufacturing accomplice leaked its design to a rival firm, and that this rival firm co-opting its design led to the choice to drag the product.
Valve has its in-house Steam Deck dock (opens in new tab) out there for buy, however with the lengthy delay earlier than it was launched and a $90 price ticket, it is a bit of a tall order. In the meantime, any previous USB-C hub will work for connecting a Deck to exterior peripherals, and producers like Jsaux have stepped in to supply cheaper alternate options to Valve’s docking station. We’re followers of the corporate’s customary Deck dock (opens in new tab), although we advocate shelling out the additional $10 for its HB0603 (opens in new tab) mannequin.
Jsaux had already despatched out preview samples of its subsequent Steam Deck product, a variation on the HB0603 with an RGB ring across the base and additional beauty, gaming laptop-y thrives on the edges, when it introduced the product’s redesign and delay.
Within the publish from Jsaux (opens in new tab), the corporate shares a screenshotted tweet with the account title blacked out, allegedly from its competitor. The tweet consists of video footage of a {hardware} peripheral with RGB lighting and tags quite a few Steam Deck-focused influencers with the caption, “Latest Steam deck dock with flash lights. Coming quickly!!”
Jsaux then shares a sequence of screenshots from its CAD software program displaying design drafts of its RGB dock, courting the designs to July. The corporate states it filed a patent on the design in August.
Jsaux alleges that its competitor acquired this design by its accomplice producer, and acknowledged that will probably be utilizing a special manufacturing unit to provide its merchandise sooner or later.
At the moment it is unclear who Jsaux’s unnamed competitor is. I can not discover any hint of the tweet by way of Twitter search or the tagged influencers’ exercise historical past. I additionally can’t discover the knockoff dock on sale on Amazon or AliExpress, although there are actually different retailers it could possibly be bought by. Steam Deck HQ (opens in new tab), one of many retailers tagged within the tweet, acknowledged that they know the id of the rival firm by this connection, however are maintaining that info confidential in step with what appear to be Jsaux’s needs on the matter.
It is actually a tangled little yarn of gaming peripheral company espionage, like an excellent low stakes model of a William Gibson story. It is unclear to me why Jsaux is pulling its product when it appears to be the wounded get together, one with a patent on the design. Jsaux is predicated in China and I’d presume that its manufacturing accomplice and rival are as effectively, doubtlessly eliding the difficulties of a world copyright dispute, however I am hardly an professional on Chinese language copyright legislation.
Regardless of the case, Jsaux intends to return to the drafting board and return with a brand new design for an RGB deck, predicting that it’ll have one thing to convey to market after just a few months’ delay.
