Monday, May 21st 2018
Where AREZ Thou, GPP? ASUS 180's, Announces ROG Branding is Here to Stay
Well, if doubts ever existed, those have been somewhat dispelled in recent times, but this must be the final nail in the GPP coffin. Hopefully, it's also the proverbial nail to show customers Green, Red and Blue (seldom-remembered Intel was also a target) of what exactly NVIDIA's program entailed. NVIDIA found itself in a rather embattled field against tech publications and consumers alike when the first match was lit on what GPP was and what it forced NVIDIA partners to do with their brands. Turns out exclusively aligning them with NVIDIA products would give incredibly relevant advantages compared to partners who didn't, forcing an otherwise healthy ecosystem to converge on the dominant market player.
After around two months of story coverage, NVIDIA terminated the GPP program - begrudgingly so, and seemingly forgetting everything about the way things are meant to be played. However, some AMD partners had already announced some exclusive AMD-branded graphics cards, with new, market recognition-absent brands such as ASUS's AREZ and (it all seems to point that way) MSI's MECH 2 series of graphics cards. What were they to do in the wake of GPP's earlier-than-expected burial? These companies spent marketing and design funds to come up with new brands and designs, after all.
UPDATE (22/05): ASUS informed us that the tweet which was the basis of the original report is not operated by ASUS. The company stated that it will continue to sell ASUS ROG and AREZ branded graphics cards side-by-side. ASUS is in the process of getting Twitter to take down the impersonating handle.
ASUS, for one, seems to have decided to bite the bullet on the funds devoted to the creation of the AREZ brand, declaring them lost in the process of reuniting its gaming brand under the ROG banner. But ASUS, having been a GPP partner (well, there's no way they weren't, right?), couldn't make a big story out of this: publicity on the GPP program is bad publicity, after all. As such, the company announced on its AREZ Twitter, at 9.50 PM of last Saturday, that the AREZ brand was coming to an end, with ROG being there to stay. This message slipped the radar until now since, well - AREZ really only had some 129 followers at the time of the tweet. Which just really goes to show how NVIDIA's ploy might have worked in muscling out market recognition of some of its competition's products.
So much for AREZ, then. Thankfully, we barely even knew you.
Sources:
ASUS AREZ, via HardOCP
After around two months of story coverage, NVIDIA terminated the GPP program - begrudgingly so, and seemingly forgetting everything about the way things are meant to be played. However, some AMD partners had already announced some exclusive AMD-branded graphics cards, with new, market recognition-absent brands such as ASUS's AREZ and (it all seems to point that way) MSI's MECH 2 series of graphics cards. What were they to do in the wake of GPP's earlier-than-expected burial? These companies spent marketing and design funds to come up with new brands and designs, after all.
ASUS, for one, seems to have decided to bite the bullet on the funds devoted to the creation of the AREZ brand, declaring them lost in the process of reuniting its gaming brand under the ROG banner. But ASUS, having been a GPP partner (well, there's no way they weren't, right?), couldn't make a big story out of this: publicity on the GPP program is bad publicity, after all. As such, the company announced on its AREZ Twitter, at 9.50 PM of last Saturday, that the AREZ brand was coming to an end, with ROG being there to stay. This message slipped the radar until now since, well - AREZ really only had some 129 followers at the time of the tweet. Which just really goes to show how NVIDIA's ploy might have worked in muscling out market recognition of some of its competition's products.
28 Comments on Where AREZ Thou, GPP? ASUS 180's, Announces ROG Branding is Here to Stay
Karma is a bitch
"Karma the way it's meant to be paid"
It's all positive except for the tarnish it's thrown at AMD cards already, and intel.
The next bout of shenanigans is already in the wings i here and it's team blue this time.
What an indistry eh.
..., but your head-on zerg-rush into ILLEGAL MONOPOLY practices are DULY NOTELY.
They got caught with their pants down the same way peoples moms accidently walk in on their kids jerkin off in the bedroom. Nvidia got caught jerkin off...
In the end Asus and MSI got their asses kicked for being too quick to jump in. All the money spent on new branding went down the drain.
People buy the chips usually not the implementations. I for one never heard of anybody saying "I'm buying ROG" but I do hear them say "I'm going to get a 1080" for example.
Asus isn't going to go on the record against NVIDIA for fear of losing access to GeForce chips; however, ending AREZ is the strongest message Asus could send without burning bridges.I wouldn't be surprised if NVIDIA received investigation compliance orders from the Federal Trade Commission and/or European Union Commission. At that point, it was clear to them that their quiet strong arming tactic was caught by the all-seeing eye. The gig was up. If they didn't shut it down immediately, the damages they're going to have to pay down the road would continue to mount. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars at minimum. It's going to be the biggest fine NVIDIA has paid to date. FTC's fine may end up going to the wounded parties like Asus and MSI.
Remember, it was AMD tipping off the press that they smell something fishy in GPP.