Turtle Beach Corporation is one of the world’s leading gaming accessory providers. The Turtle Beach brand is known for pioneering first-to-market features and patented innovations in high-quality, comfort-driven headsets for all levels of gamer, making it a fan-favorite brand and the market leader in console gaming audio for the last decade. Turtle Beach’s ROCCAT brand combines detail-loving German innovation with a genuine passion for designing the best PC gaming products. Under the ROCCAT brand, Turtle Beach creates award-winning keyboards, mice, headsets, mousepads, and other PC accessories. Turtle Beach’s Neat Microphones brand creates high-quality USB and analog microphones for gamers, streamers, and professionals that embrace cutting-edge technology and design. Turtle Beach’s shares are traded on the Nasdaq Exchange under the symbol: HEAR.
Company History
Turtle Beach has been a leader in gaming audio for decades, and the Company’s origin story dates all the way back to 1975.
1975
Octave Electronics is founded by Carmine Bonanno, who started as a musician, had become an industry expert in PC digital music, and held several patents in the field of music hardware.
1975-1979
Octave Electronics manufactures and markets several analog music synthesizers under the “Octave Cat” brand. These instruments were hailed for their exceptional value and performance capabilities.
1979
Octave Electronics merges with Plateau Electronics – a prominent synthesizer repair facility in downtown Manhattan. The company is renamed Octave-Plateau Electronics and becomes a popular synthesizer maintenance facility for professional musicians and recording studios in NYC and the surrounding metro area.
Early 80s
Octave-Plateau Electronics releases Sequencer Plus – the world’s first professional-grade MIDI software for PC. Sequencer Plus allowed pro and bedroom musicians alike to compose and edit music with great detail and hear their compositions played by an array of MIDI synthesizers. Over a million copies sold worldwide and one of the most popular music programs of all time.
1982
Octave-Plateau Electronics releases Voyetra Eight – a revolutionary polyphonic synthesizer that introduced the concept of creating a scalable music synthesizer by combining multiple rack-mounted instrument modules into a single master-controlled instrument. The Voyetra Eight also blazed the way for a master keyboard controlling an array of synthesizers via a serial data interface, which was so popular it later became the MIDI interface standard.
1985
Turtle Beach Systems is founded by Roy Smith and Robert Hoke. Turtle Beach Systems achieved prominence in the PC multimedia industry with its award-winning sound cards that pioneered PC-based hard-disk recording, multi-channel PC audio playback, and DSP technology. Today, the Turtle Beach name is synonymous with superior audio quality products.
1986
1986 – Octave-Plateau Electronics changes name to Voyetra Technologies to better align the company branding with the success of its Voyetra Synthesizer. Voyetra Technologies shifts focus from synthesizers to music software and MIDI interfaces.
1992
Voyetra Technologies develops AudioStation – software that set the standard for future “jukebox” programs and quickly became the music interface for many of the world’s multimedia PCs. More than 20MM units shipped, and from 1990-1995 Voyetra’s software and hardware were commonly used in Dell, Compaq, IBM, Gateway, HP, Sony, Intel, Samsung, Creative Labs, Packard Bell, Analog Devices, Cirrus Logic, Yamaha and many other products.
1992
Turtle Beach Systems releases the MultiSound® 16-bit sound card, which won nearly every major editorial award in its category – PC Magazine Editor’s Choice, Windows® 100, InfoWorld Recommended Product, PC Computing Top 200, Windows User Best of Breed and Best Buy, Electronic Musician’s Editor’s Choice, and others.
1993
Turtle Beach Systems and Integrated Circuit Systems jointly develop the new sound chip called the ICS WaveFront™ synthesizer chip.
1994
Voyetra Technologies introduces Digital Orchestrator Plus, launching the next generation of its music line.
1996
Voyetra releases Discovering Music – an interactive CD-ROM which seeming made the history, theory, and techniques of music come to life.
1996
Voyetra Technologies acquires Turtle Beach Systems. The company again changes names to Voyetra Turtle Beach, Inc. and also obtains the Dell contract to become the premiere sound card manufacturer for Dell for five years.
1998
Voyetra Turtle Beach releases the Montego™ series of award-winning sound cards which sold over 2.5MM units.
2000
Voyetra Turtle Beach introduces the Santa Cruz – a 6-channel DSP-powered sound card that was shipped as the high-end solution for PC manufacturers such as Dell.
2001
Voyetra Turtle Beach revolutionizes digital network players with AudioTron – which allowed consumers to play MP3 files on their stereo system that were stored on their computer, marking the company’s entry into networked audio systems.
2005
Turtle Beach introduces the Montego™ DDL – the first sound card available in the U.S. to feature Dolby® Digital Live technology for real-time positional audio encoding and distribution.
2005
Turtle Beach begins manufacturing the X51 – the first gaming headset for Xbox. The company also introduces Ear Force branding for gaming headsets for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and PC.
2006
Turtle Beach begins shipping the Audio Advantage® Amigo and Audio Advantage SRM – completing its USB audio line of external sound devices.
2007
ROCCAT founded with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. ROCCAT shows first presentation of the Kone mouse and Valo keyboard at gamescom, Leipzig.
2008
ROCCAT launches Valo keyboard – the first gaming keyboard with revolutionary 2MB internal memory for Macros.
2008
ROCCAT launches Kone – the first gaming mouse with multicolor RGB lighting, plus a weight system, and a tracking control unit making it the first mouse laser to adjust perfectly to the particular mousepad to squeeze every last drop of performance from the sensor.
2009
ROCCAT introduces Sound Feedback – the first manufacturer to utilize Sound Feedback to indicate configuration changes on the mouse/keyboard by enabling devices to speak. Announces DPI settings, profile selection, volume, sensitivity settings and more.
2010
ROCCAT launches Pyra Wireless – the first wireless mouse with a 1000hz polling rate, putting a wireless mouse on a level playing field with wired mice.![2010 – ROCCAT launches EasyShift[+]](https://corp.turtlebeach.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/2010-EasyShift.jpg)
2010
ROCCAT launches EasyShift[+] – allowing mouse buttons and the mouse wheel to perform additional tasks by allowing assignment of two functions.
2011
ROCCAT launches ROCCAT Talk – ROCCAT was the first manufacturer in the world to allow two gaming peripheral devices to communicate with each other, where gamers could assign a key on the keyboard to work as the EasyAim button on the mouse.
2013
Turtle Beach introduces Superhuman Hearing® – the company’s exclusive sound setting designed to give gamers a competitive advantage through precision audio. Superhuman Hearing pulls up low-level game audio like enemy footsteps so you can see them before they get you.
2015
Turtle Beach launches the Recon 50 series multiplatform gaming headsets, which go on to become the best-selling gaming headset based on powerful game sound, crystal-clear chat, variety of colors and affordable price.
2015
ROCCAT launches the Nyth gaming mouse – setting a new standard for gaming mouse modularity with interchangeable buttons and side panels, plus 3D printing support.
2016
Turtle Beach launches the Elite Pro – the first gaming headset designed from the ground-up for esports athletes and competitive gamers.
2016
Turtle Beach pioneers glasses-friendly headset comfort with the ProSpecs™ Glasses Relief System, which alleviates added pressure on glasses by creating a channel in the ear cushion so gamers who wear spectacles can finally play in comfort.
2016
Turtle Beach launches the Stream Mic, the first plug-n-play livestreaming mic compatible with Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
2016
ROCCAT launches the Sova Lapboard – the combo keyboard/mousepad with a padded underside closed the gap between desktop PC gaming and gaming on the couch.
2017
Turtle Beach launches the Recon Chat – taking chat-only headsets to a new level by offering features like a glasses-friendly fit and a unique open earcup that allows users to hear chat audio through the speaker while still being able to hear external audio from TV/home theatre.
2017
Turtle Beach launches the original Stealth 600 and Stealth 700 headsets. On Xbox they are the first to use Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless technology to connect the headset directly to the console just like the Xbox Wireless controllers do. No USB transmitter, no base station, no wires. Stealth 600 becomes the best-selling wireless gaming headset. Stealth 700 becomes the best-selling premium wireless gaming headset.
2017
ROCCAT launches Kone AIMO – the first mouse with intelligent lighting and multiple lighting zones.
2017
ROCCAT launches AIMO Intelligent Lighting – creating a living lighting ecosystem that reacts dynamically and intuitively to command inputs and delivers a breathtaking lighting scene for your desktop without any configuration.
2018
Turtle Beach launches Battle Buds – a unique earbud style gaming headset that features a detachable boom mic for gaming and chat, as well as an inline mic for mobile use.
2018
ROCCAT launches Khan AIMO as it’s first gaming headset with high-res drivers for exceptional PC gaming audio.
2018
ROCCAT launches the Titan Switch – developed for players who love the touch of a mechanical keyboard, but demand even more precision and performance.
2018
ROCCAT launches the Vulcan series gaming keyboards, with the Vulcan 120, 121 and 122 winning a variety of awards and accolades from gamers and reviewers alike.
2019
Turtle Beach Corporation acquires ROCCAT, making ROCCAT the company’s official PC gaming accessories brand.
2019
Turtle Beach launches the Recon 70 as the contemporary successor to the best-selling Recon 50 series gaming headsets.
2019
ROCCAT launches the Kain PC gaming mouse featuring Titan Click – game mouse mechanics are completely revised to achieve a precise and crisp mouse click.
2020
Turtle Beach launches Stealth 600 Gen 2 and Stealth 700 Gen 2 as the first cross-generation console gaming headsets designed to work with Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S as well as for PS4™ and PS5™.
2021
Turtle Beach Corporation acquires Neat Microphones, making Neat the company’s official brand for high-quality digital USB and analog microphones that embrace cutting edge technology and design.
2021
After three years of working together behind the scenes, Turtle Beach officially partners with Oakley as the leading sport performance and optical brand enters gaming and esports. The partnership debuted with custom prescription gaming glasses that deliver next-level performance benefits for gaming by reducing eyestrain and fatigue, and fit perfectly with any of Turtle Beach’s glasses-friendly gaming headsets.
