SteelSeries, recently announced the SteelSeries Siberia Neckband Headset, the first circumaural neckband headset created for professional gaming. The new professional gaming headset is optimized for use with personal computers while offering "street-style" functionality for use with MP3-players and other digital devices. The original Siberia Full-Size Headset was released in late 2004 and instantly became a smash-hit among leading professional gamers. The product was the first professional gaming headset to fully cover the users' ears, adding new levels of comfort to audio products for gamers.The new SteelSeries Siberia Neckband Headset features a similar eye-catching visual design, as well as the popular white theme, that made the original Siberia headset so popular. Professional gamers from a number of major international gaming organizations took part in the development and fine-tuning of the product, including some of biggest names in eSports: SK Gaming, Team 3D and compLexity. This is the first Siberia-product to feature the trademark pull-out microphone system found in most other gaming headsets from SteelSeries.

The comfort and soundscape in the SteelSeries Siberia Neckband Headset was fine-tuned with the help of professional gamers, electronic DJ's and rock musicians. The combined input and feedback from this broad range of picky audiophiles helped create a soundscape optimized for a multitude of uses. Final sound optimizations for gaming were done with the help of Abdisamad 'SpawN' Mohamed, one of the world's most accomplished Counter-Strike players with 12 major international grand-slam championship titles and "Best of Class" awards by leading eSport sites in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The new open-type SteelSeries Siberia Neckband Headset is compact and lightweight, while fully covering the user's ears. The result is a product that is both comfortable and firm to wear. As the headset is placed around the users' neck the user can wear hats or other garments without problems.

"The original Siberia headsets are still enormously popular, so trying to create the same unique combination of sound quality and visual design was extremely important to us," says Kim Rom, Marketing Director for SteelSeries. "The final result is a headset that breaks new ground for gaming accessories, just as the original headset did. This time it not only sounds even better, it also maintains the same low price point as the original."

"It was a lot of fun to help develop a gaming product that offers quality sound, and doesn't mess up a hairstyle or get in the way when you wear a cap," says Abdisamad 'SpawN' Mohamed, Counter-Strike player for SK Gaming. "Being able to use the same product for both gaming and my iPod is a nice feature, I'm looking forward to the release of this baby."

The new SteelSeries Siberia Neckband Headset will be released in Q3 2007, pricing details to be announced.