attig

I don’t want to be overly critical as I appreciate the transparency of the OP regarding aiming for a closed platform. I just would like to highlight the short-sightedness of the policy. iCUE is a great piece of software, it comes close to the ideal of having all your RGB and fan/temp control in one place. However, the lack of support for A-RGB, which is now a de-facto standard, is erroneous in many ways. Having all these controls in one place, no matter how great that place is, will always be second to selecting the best components for our builds. I happen to have a bunch of Corsair products (peripherals and fans), and a commander. However not all my RGB is Corsair (GPU, CPU, etc) which means I still have to keep Armoury crate running. Motherboards are already adapting to A-RGB, and their software, which is not as good, sucks less and less. If it wasn’t for the lack of RGB headers on the motherboard (and the mediocre software), I would be able to run everything with Armoury Crate. And, inevitably, if not competitors, open source software will get there. Some are already out. Eventually, if we are not there already, it will get to a point where iCue alternatives become useable. That’s the point where Corsair will have to chose to either double down and close/encrypt/sue for integrating their product and keep their eco-system proprietary, or just be forced to support A-RGB. It’s a losing battle. Code, and open source especially, always finds a way. And if you manage to lock everything and force your customers to chose, a significant portion will not chose what you hope. And please, although this was only partially hinted at, don’t claim some “technical” barrier. There are little or none. A hacked cable is enough to support ARGB. You could easily produce one if not update the firmware. Not supporting A-RGB is a deliberate commercial choice. Again, it's worth repeating, I am grateful the OP was transparent about this. Meanwhile, with this policy, you are telegraphing to everyone that you are not confident about your products. You don’t trust that we will buy your products on their merit alone and need to create (or enforce) loyalty through an artificially closed platform. Microsoft for example (not a competitor AFAIK, I read the rules 😉 ) tried that in the past and now they let you run SQL Server on Linux. They are telling us that they are so confident that Windows Server is better that they do not need to restrict their products to it. Are you confident enough of your products? Do you internally believe you have the best fans, keyboards, blocks, cases, etc? That people will buy them regardless even if they are open to other ecosystems or easily interchangeable with competitors? I find it a shame, because I genuinely like Corsair products and I find this restriction unnecessary and, frankly, damaging. Speaking for me personally, and I doubt I am alone, if a Corsair product is the “best”, it will have to be a lot better than than a more universally compatible second choice.