Colorful Technology Company Limited (七彩虹 Qīcǎihóng) or simply known as Colorful may not be a household name outside of China, they pretty much dominate the GPU market in the mainland. Established in 1995 and successfully positioned the brand as one of the top PC gaming component brands in the country.
Dedicated to pushing the limit of graphics card, RAM and motherboard, Colorful created the 'iGame series' after taking players and users feedback into considerations to produce high-end components. The iGame series is often equate to extreme specs, prestige and of course, the premium price tag that comes with it.
Courtesy of Colorful's invitation, we at the IGN Southeast Asia office were granted the chance to travel to mainland China, to attend the annual Colorful Games Union or better known as CGU.
This year's CGU was held at Changsha, Hunan Province of China. Fun fact: Although the event date was 6th January 2019, it was branded as CGU 2018, as it's still 2018 in the Lunar calendar. Since its debut in 2013, CGU has gathered and nurtured the growth of various professional China esports teams, casters and streamers including Snake, Royal Never Give Up, just to name a few.
On event day, the event launched according to schedule with the emcees greeting thousands of gamers and fans, followed by a series of opening gambits and introduction of 8 PUBG teams from Southeast Asia and 8 Chinese teams that competed in a friendly tournament.
The event was a significant testament to Colorful's passion and effort in breaking past their domestic border, inviting more international players to compete and participate in spirit of esports. CGU 2018 was a success in the sense, where it welcomed and opened up a whole new opportunity to the where foreign esports players can be involved in high-level tournament in China.
Additionally, higher management at Colorful also recognised that the fans have been the most important factor for Colorful in pursuing and pushing CGU to be better and better. In return, CGU 2018 was filled with fan-pleasing activities like friendly match featuring popular Chinese League of Legends team Royal Never Give Up, celebrity casters, streamers and two very lucky fans handpicked from the audience via live feed cameras. The organisers also invited a guest modders from Thailand, Philippines and within China to attend and showcase their insane PC mods.
The atmosphere in the event hall was electric even though the weather was actually freezing cold for tropical country citizens like us (2 to 5 degrees Celsius). There were also tons of giveaways, lucky draws involving high-end products like Colorful iGame RTX 2080 Ti Graphics Card, SSD RAMs and motherboards.
One of the highlights of CGU 2018 was the reveal of their limited edition Colorful iGame Geforce RTX2080 Ti Kudan. This beast houses incredible specifications - a super fast 1800mhz clock speed out of the box, 4352 CUDA cores, 7680x4320@60Hz maximum digital resolution, 11 gb memory config and 616GB/S bandwitdh.
The RTX2080 Ti Kudan sports a heavy steampunk design with a premium crusted backplate that scream prestige all around. According to Colorful, the product will be limited to 1000 pcs and they are targeting to release it on China along with international markets such as Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Australia. The price tag is currently estimated at around $3000USD! Yes, it's crazy expensive, but crazy cool at the same time.
The Kudan series is pretty much the top of the line of Colorful. The first of its kind was the iGame GTX 560 Ti Kudan, which was a huge sensation in the Chinese market. Since last year, the Kudan box has been upgraded into a leather-like case, and you can also customise your own box which worth up to $200USD. It's indeed a collector's item and a collector's dream at that.
The trip did not conclude with the closing ceremony of CGU, as we were then invited to an internal press conference of their very first all-in-one PC featuring the all new RTX 2060, an 8th generation Intel processor with 2K 144hz display. Unfortunately, they did not reveal the physical unit, and we only got to watch the product trailer and specifications. But it certainly sounds like an ambitious piece of hardware. Named as the Colorful iGame G-1, the all-in-one PC will be on sale in selected SEA countries some time in April 2019. Retail price has yet to be determined.
And that is the end of our Colorful journey to China. Stay tuned to IGN Southeast Asia, for more info about Colorful's products.
Freddy is the editor of IGN SEA. You can show him some love by following him on twitter @freddytan.
