The Gaming Mouse Sensor Monopoly
All of the above mice market themselves proudly as having their own optical sensors, the incredible little cameras that let your mouse track your hand movements.
The SteelSeries models use the TrueMove Air and TrueMove+. The Roccat Kone Pro uses the Owl-Eye. Razer has both their 5G Optical and Focus+ sensors depending on how high up you go, claimed to be some of the best in the business. You can find marketing videos, blogs, and bluster-filled web sites about how these sensors have been fine-tuned, hand-designed, and customized by these different gaming brands to be the most accurate and mind-blowing mouse sensors you’ve ever used.
The true reality is a little more mundane than that. While all of these mice do have excellent sensors, and while they do all technically have custom firmware designed by the different brands, the actual hardware inside is all made by the same company: PixArt.
PixArt Imaging Inc. is based in Taiwan, and they’ve somehow gained an effective monopoly over the gaming mouse sensor market. If you’re using a mouse from a major gaming company, whether it’s any of the above or even HyperX, Cooler Master, or Corsair — odds are high that it has a PixArt sensor inside.
