Hi guys, Donnie Walker here, I'm the inventor of the kontrol freek products. I work for a design firm in Birmingham, Alabama and I have always loved gaming. While playing PGR2 and the first Forza, I got the idea for this product. Luckly for me, working in a product design firm made it easy to develop this product. I really appreciate the post here and the comments. We are hopefully going to be going into production soon so that we can start mail ordering these from our website. If you have any questions at all, feel free to contact me.
[email protected] Have a good night guys.
One other note, we are developing a FPS style kontrol freek as well, hopefully once the U shape gets on the market we can proceed with the FPS version.
To the point about pricing. Anyone here ever got injection mold prices before for plastic parts? I have designed plastic parts and injection molds for years, I know what it takes to bring a product to life. Yes, the part itself will cost less then 25 cents once you get into large production. But once you factor in the tool, anywhere from 5 to 20 grand depending on cavities, the packaging, the shipping and the markup for retail, you end up having more then a 25 cent product. I have a kontrol freek prototype that I use anytime I race a game on my 360 or black box, and I tell you that it helps. It might take 5 minutes to get use to but since your thumb still uses the existing thumbstick surface, adjusting to this product is a breeze. Several of our testers used this one on fps shooter games as well and liked it, although we are looking at a different design for fps. Thanks again guys, keep the comments coming.
Donnie Walker
KontrolFreek