*By Bridgette Webb*
Turtle Beach is on a roll.
The headset producer unveiled a new line of gaming gear called Atlas that's specifically designed for PC gamers.
"We are doing the same thing in the PC segment that we are doing in the console headset gaming segment for many years," said Turtle Beach CEO Juergen Stark in an interview Thursday on Cheddar. "We've put a lot of effort in making sure the build quality, the audio quality and the mic quality is the best you can get."
The new headset was introduced after the company reported second-quarter results that blew away analysts' expectations. Net revenue, net income, and earnings were higher than any second quarter since the company's 2014 IPO. Turtle Beach reported $60.8 million in revenue for the quarter ー up from $19.1 million the year before.
Stark attributed Turtle Beach's success to cost cutting on one side of its balance sheet and the booming demand for headsets generated by the popularity of battle royale games Fortnite and PUBG.
As promising a year as it's been so far, Stark said international tariffs could hurt sales of the imported Turtle Beach headsets.
"It will effect retail pricing for us, and for everyone in the category if what people are threatening goes through," he said. "I'm hopeful that it doesn't happen, I don't see how increasing the prices for consumers for everything you buy that's electronic is going to help anybody."
When asked how tariffs would affect the price of gaming headsets, Stark offered a matter-of-fact outlook.
"If there is a 10 percent tariff and you are building a product in China, the retail price point is going to go up 10 percent. If it's a 25 percent tariff that's being threatened, the retailer is it going to go up 25 percent."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/turtle-beach-expands-further-into-pc-gaming).
Market research firm SuperData estimates the uber-popular game has brought in $1 billion in revenue from in-app purchases, with gamers buying add-ons purely for cosmetics. "It does not make you have a better gun, it does not give you any advantage in terms of where you land on the map, it doesn't give you any special powers," says Eli Blumenthal, digital editor at USA Today.
The superhero franchise will launch its first virtual reality video game on July 26. The game, says Bill Rosemann, executive creative director at Marvel Games, will be a fully-immersive experience. "It unleashes that fantasy, that ultimate fantasy of being the Marvel character," he tells Cheddar. "You don't just look like Captain Marvel or Captain America. You have their powers."
Dan Neil, Automotive Critic at the Wall Street Journal, got the first test drive of the high-performance version of Tesla's Model 3. He says the company has at least a five-year head start on competitors in metrics like software, batteries, and packaging.
The gaming industry is known to be skewed towards boys and men. Laila Shabir, CEO and founder of Girls Make Games, is trying to change that through three-week summer camps for young girls. "Being represented in a medium like games...is extremely important," says Shabir.
The actor, comedian, and activist created an augmented reality app called "House of Cats," which features an animated, satirical version of the president called "Trump-y Cat." A portion of the proceeds will go to support refugees. "We are going to counter his hostility with support," Takei tells Cheddar.
The San Francisco-based company, which uses artificial intelligence to generate training materials for large companies, just received an investment from JPMorgan Chase. "When you go to work, that's where A.I.'s going to have the greatest impact. It's less artificial intelligence and more augmented intelligence," says Carson Kahn, Volley's CTO.
Sonny Singh, Bitpay’s chief commercial officer, believes digital currencies will have real transactional value by next year. “Last year was a little bit about hype,” he tells Cheddar. “I think next year is going to be the year of mass adoption.”
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Comcast announced Thursday it will focus on snapping up British broadcaster Sky, clearing the way for Disney to acquire Fox's film and TV studios, the networks FX and NatGeo, and its stake in Hulu. The deal, however, would make the streaming landscape "more fragmented," says Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey.
Amazon Prime Day notched a record when members purchased more than 100 million products on the company-made shopping holiday. By and large, bigger retailers triumphed over smaller companies. The challenge for Amazon, though, according to Sucharita Kodali, retail analyst at Forrester, is how to offer more niche brands enough value that they don't opt instead to go direct-to-consumer.
