Pimp your console

So is changing the faceplate of your Xbox 360 not enough for you? Are you to scared to completely mod your PlayStation 3?

Do you still want your gaming console to show your unique personality though? Well luckily now you can and through a local company as well. They do however ship internationally as well.

Myskins.co.za offers high quality personalised skins for all the major gaming consoles. I sent off a few questions to Even at Myskins.co.za and he has very kindly gotten back to me…

LG (That would be me): What does your company offer?
Even: Our company started with Laptop Branding a year and a half ago (http://www.novia.co.za/branding/laptops.asp), but then moved into Skins about a year ago. We worked on R&D for about 6 months before we opened the website: www.myskins.co.za

LG: Do you create all the skins yourself or do you import them?
Even: We are unique in South Africa in that we do the final stage of the manufacturing here. This means we can make skins on demand, exactly to the customer’s wishes.

LG: I was never very good at sticker books as a kid, how difficult is this to do?
Even: The initial requirement we had for skins was simple: It has to be so easy to apply that virtually anyone can do it. The secret lies in the material that we use. Even though it’s slightly more expensive than what some other skin manufacturer use, the quality was worth it to us. Our Skins have air channels in the material, which means that any trapped air (bubbles) disappear with ease using your thumb. It’s easy to align (as it doesn’t stick until you actually press it down), it’s re-positionable within 24 hours (stick on, peel off, stick on again), and it does not peel or fade within 3 years.

LG: I worry that the skin on the controllers would make it feel strange and does it get slippy after a long gaming session?
Even: It doesn’t feel bad. Using it on my own Xbox. It might feel a bit different at first, but seeing as the skin doesn’t cover the entire controller, it creates tiny “ridges” on the controller that actually makes it “non-slip” (if there ever was such a thing).

LG: We all know the Xbox 360 has a terrible failure rate and warranties are like gold, does the skin void the warranty in any way? Would we need to remove it before sending our console in?
Even: Warranties are not affected in any way! Anything that includes opening the Xbox or other device will void the warranty (like modchips, etc), but applying a skin on the outside doesn’t change anything. Skins for the Xbox even has cutouts for the air vents to ensure that ventilation is adequate. We have been talking with Micrsoft about this (we even made skins for their Forza2 launch) and they actually love the skins

LG: Could you do custom designs if requested?
Even: You know, this is our main selling point. We can make anything. If you want a skin of your kid, lover, kitten, goldfish, that weird-design-you-made-when-you-had-no-sleep- for-48-hours, we can do it. All for the same price as any of the set designs (this was very important to us) and with the same production time (7 days max)

LG: Have you found South African gamers receptive to the idea at all?
Even: Funnily enough we started with this for iPods, however our biggest sellers turned out to be laptops. We knew the price was a bit high to start off (this was because our costs were also high when volumes were low), so we listened to the gamers and dropped the price just last week. We have already started getting orders for the Xbox and Playstation now. We want to get more involved in the gaming community, most because I grew up as a gamer myself.

I’d like to thank Even for the time he took to answer my questions and make sure you keep your eyes pealed for a very cool competition coming very soon where you will be able to win your very own skins courtesy of MySkins.co.za

Last Updated: July 10, 2007