Indonesia’s sudden spike in the PC gaming scene peaked with Xenom’s appearance in the country’s gaming notebook market at a recent press conference. Launching five models in its first line of products, Xenom becomes the very first Indonesian company to make and sell gaming notebooks. Gamers around Indonesia now can buy proper gaming laptops from their own nation at a cheaper price compared to other famous gaming brands such as Asus’ Republic of Gamers and Dell’s Alienware.
Where it all starts
Rolly Edward, the general manager of Xenom, is a gamer himself. Playing games since his youth, he uses various gaming equipment to support him, including a gaming notebook so that he can play even when he’s outside. But there is one problem that haunts him, as it does most gamers: every six months, new games with epic graphics and higher system requirements are released, and his gaming laptop can no longer support the games at maximum graphic settings. This made Rolly want to buy a gaming laptop that can be customized to his needs. This is one of the core reasons why Rolly founded Xenom and released its five customizable gaming notebooks as Xenom’s first products.
First lineup
Xenom’s premier lineup includes the following:
- Xenom Pegasus: Lightweight and thin, less powerful specs.
- Xenom Shiva: Minimal heat during gaming sessions.
- Xenom Siren: Smallest of the five, with more powerful specs than Pegasus.
- Xenom Phoenix: High durability with powerful specs.
- Xenom Hercules: Extremely powerful, armed with dual 4GB NVIDIA GTX 780M in SLI mode.
As you might realize, those are all mythical gods’ names, each named according to their capabilities. The reason for naming these products after gods is not just to be cool, says Rolly. He believes the new generation of gamers doesn’t want to be bothered with detailed specifications, and just wants to just the most bang for their buck. For example, if a gamer wants a laptop that doesn’t produce much heat, then they should get the god of ice, Shiva.
Epic startup
In a way, Xenom is a startup company. With less than 10 staff in their office and around 15 technicians in their lab, Xenom isn’t exactly huge. However, Xenom definitely aims to compete with the big boys, as they have striked deals with Intel as their official CPU supplier and NVIDIA as their official GPU supplier. They also have made a deal with Prime Games, which is pretty much the Steam of Indonesia. They’re currently looking to sponsor events, especially gaming events, to market their products.
While it might have potential, Xenom currently doesn’t plan to expand to other countries outside Indonesia. Rolly says it wants to focus on local market and make Xenom a company the nation will be proud of. And even if Xenom goes international, they will most likely stick to ASEAN first.
As an Indonesian myself, I can’t help but feel proud. Xenom will definitely have many challenges ahead, competing with the already proven gaming brands and against Indonesian gamers’ skepticism of their own local products. It will be interesting to see how Xenom fares.
(See also: Get Your Game On With These 6 Asian Gaming Gear Companies)
(Editing by Paul Bischoff, Steven Millward, and Enricko Lukman)
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