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A Visit to Saitek
By Kurt GiesselmanSecond in the Traveling Gamer Series
The flight to the U.K. from Paris went as smooth as strafing an unarmed column of troop transports. I grabbed a shuttle to the rental car area and signed my life away for something called a Vauxhall. Out in the parking lot I found what appeared to be a toy car with my name on it and loaded my luggage into the boot.
I walked around to the left side of the car, opened the door, and looked at the passenger seat. Oops. This was probably going to be entertaining. I walked over to the right side of the car and climbed into the driver’s seat. The words ‘Stay left, stay left.’ Running over and over in my mind.
Thankfully, for the British population that had the potential misfortune of being on the road from London to Bristol with me, the remainder of the trip was pleasant and uneventful. My directions led me to a small office park where a small brass plaque read ‘Saitek’. I had a few minutes in the reception area after I checked in.
There was a large display of the computer chess games that Saitek markets and many of the controllers they manufacture. I was, of course, right in the middle of pulling down every controller and game pad on the display, and making quite a mess of the lovingly arranged items I might add, when Ali Farmer stuck his head around the corner to say “Good morning. Want a tour?”
Steve Bright working on the new designs
Saitek moved into their current modern facility about six months ago. The new offices gather R&D, QA, marketing, and customer services under the same roof. We made a quick tour of the marketing and customer service groups before stopping in the QA/R&D section. Saitek’s manufacturing facilities are in China so the UK-based QA group has a slightly different mission than a group that is typically linked to manufacturing.| Next |
