CHICAGO – April 12, 2012 – SteelSeries the leading manufacturer of premium-quality, competitive gaming peripherals today, along with the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC) announced a co-licensed product and collaborative marketing partnership. This announcement is the next step in the longstanding relationship between UFC and SteelSeries that has included the sponsorship of international octagon events and fighters such as Alexander Gustafsson, a top ten ranked MMA fighter in UFC. In addition to a number of marketing collaborations slated for this year, SteelSeries will also introduce a line of UFC Edition peripherals, which include a SteelSeries QcK UFC Edition mousepad, available now, and UFC edition headsets, which will be introduced later this year.

“SteelSeries and UFC, though very different types of companies, have a number of similarities when it comes to their professional, sponsored players who exude the ‘winning is everything’ attitude, as well as loyal fans that are passionate, incredibly vocal, and active in their respective communities,” said Mark Joliffe, SteelSeries Vice President of Branded Gaming Peripherals. “SteelSeries is looking forward to working with UFC in our marketing efforts and to introduce co-branded peripherals for UFC and MMA game fans.”

“We’re really excited to be partnering with SteelSeries not only by introducing a UFC mousepad and headsets, but also the creative and collaborative marketing efforts that we’ll be launching to both of our communities,” said UFC President Dana White.

The SteelSeries QcK UFC® Edition cloth mousepad will feature the official UFC red logo in front of a cage-like black and grey background. Providing a smooth surface glide and rubberized base to keep it in place on its surface, the mousepad is medium sized and is available now on the SteelSeries Web Shop for $14.99 / €14.99 MSRP. There will be further information about the SteelSeries UFC Edition headsets later this year.

For more information about the upcoming social media and marketing promotions between SteelSeries and UFC, be sure to follow them both on Facebook – http://facebook.com/steelseries and http://facebook.com/ufc and on Twitter – http://twitter.com/steelseries and http://twitter.com/ufc.