Two weeks ago we got word of a brand new kind of keyboard coming out. Wooting, the folks behind our favourite gaming keyboard of the minute, the Wooting Two HE, have been hard at work on a new design. The adorable little three-keyed board looks like an April Fools joke at first glance, but the Wooting UwU is real and we have details of the founders campaign to go alongside this unique product.
The UwU is a purpose-built board designed for the rhythm game osu! A keyboard made for just one game may seem like overkill, but osu! is a free-to-play mainstay of the rhythm gaming community that's been around for years, and has seen a resurgence in popularity thanks to social media.
UwU, pricingLaunches in less than 48 hours 😱Detailed post:https://t.co/uPpUb7LDkf pic.twitter.com/sUvKNgRoRrApril 4, 2023
Being free and having a thriving community constantly pumping out new levels means osu! is a treasure trove for content creators. Players on apps like TikTok share their frantic efforts, which do pretty well on the platform thanks to the funky beats and visual nature of osu! Plus, since it needs only three keys it's incredibly accessible despite its difficulty. It makes a tonne of sense for a board maker like Wooting to jump in on this action with the UwU board.
It also makes sense that Wooting is launching this board with a founders campaign, not only to gauge interest, but to help take advantage of that social sway. It's officially launching on Thursday April 6 at 15:00 (CEST) but you can grab a look at the details on the blog post.
It turns out there will be three variations of the three-keyed board, starting with the basic model. The Wooting UwU will start at $50 / €50 and comes with the base model board complete with braided USB cable, a spare of one of Wooting's analogue lekker switches, and four collectable keycaps. It's mostly a cream colour with a navy stripe across the top, and pink highlights. The face keys are white and feature the cute UwU design. It looks like a nicely pocketable peripheral.
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Wooting knows its market, so the next in the series is the Wooting UwU RGB. Where navy blue capped the previous UwU this one shows off RGB lighting, which also looks like it shines up through the keys. It comes with an additional travel case over the basic model but will set you back $69.69 / €69.69 for the package. There's also a black version called the Wooting UwU RGB Stealth Edition.
This is a fair price to pay for three keys, if it was a regular board. Given it's a niche device and comes with all the Wooting analogue capabilities including software use it actually seems OK. I'm almost thinking of getting into osu! Just to make owning one worthwhile. I'm also hoping this will lead to more high-quality bespoke controller options for games outside the usual keyboard format.
If the UwU has you convinced, you should be able to put money down in less than 48 hours. Anyone who orders as part of the founder campaign for one of these cute little keebs will be eligible for free air and freight shipping. As a bonus they'll also be granted the "UwUting Founder" role on Wooting's Discord, which will expire once the campaign is finished on the May 4.
