There was a time when gaming accessories focused on things like performance, precision, and helping you win.
Those days are apparently over.
With winter in mind and considering how bundled up we’ll all be in front of our PCs, I went and found three products that nobody asked for, but that somehow seem very appealing to Cody-in-a-blanket.
Let’s check them out.
Elgato Stream Deck Pedal
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You know the Stream Deck. The little button box that streamers and content creators use to trigger actions, launch applications, and generally feel like they’re piloting a spaceship.
Now imagine that, but for your feet.
The Elgato Stream Deck Pedal is exactly what it sounds like: three programmable foot pedals that can be assigned to just about anything. Push-to-talk, muting your microphone, switching scenes, launching macros, clipping gameplay, controlling music, or even opening applications.
At first glance, it feels completely unnecessary. Then I considered that I could essentially be gaming just by using my feet. Keeping my hands all warm and toasty inside the blanket.
I don’t know if that’s innovation or madness.
Maybe both.
Heated Office Mouse Pad
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South African gamers know that winter has a special way of finding every gap in your room and directing a freezing gust of air straight at your hands.
Someone, somewhere, clearly suffered enough because they invented a heated mousepad.
And honestly? Fair enough.
This heated mousepad does exactly what the name suggests. Plug it in, and it gently warms the area where your mouse hand spends most of its time. No RGB. No AI. No cloud integration. No companion app asking you to create an account before your fingers can be warm.
Just heat.
It’s the sort of product that sounds ridiculous right up until that cold morning arrives and suddenly you’re hovering over the checkout button, wondering whether perhaps this guy was onto something all along.
Ember Mug 2
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Cold coffee is one of life’s great tragedies.
You make a fresh cup, sit down to game, get distracted by one match, one quest, one boss fight, and before you know it your coffee has transformed into a sad room-temperature disappointment.
The Ember Mug 2 exists to prevent this injustice.
Using a built-in battery and a companion app, the mug keeps your drink at a precise temperature for hours. You literally tell your coffee how hot you’d like it to remain, and the mug does the rest.
That’s right. We’ve reached a point in human history where our mugs have firmware.
Part of me thinks this is completely absurd.
The other part is wondering how many cups of coffee I’ve abandoned over the years and whether this thing might actually be genius.
And there you have it. Three products designed to solve problems that sound made up until somebody hands you a solution.
Cold hands? Fixed.
Cold coffee? Fixed.
Running out of fingers? Surprisingly, also fixed.
Gaming hardware may have completely lost the plot, but every now and then, it wanders so far into ridiculous territory that it accidentally discovers something brilliant.
