ABOUT US

Our story

Endor, with its Headquarters in Landshut / Bavaria, was founded in the year 1997 by Thomas Jackermeier, who turned his hobby into his profession. As an active player of early-stage PC-Games, he very quickly recognized the decisive role that input devices would play on performance, reality and fun. During the 90’s, the choice, from among what was available on high quality devices, was very limited. Thomas decided to give up his wholesale biking store, a start-up business he had used to finance his educational degree during his time at the University of Regensburg while obtaining his Masters of Business Administration. Following his studies, he bought the company AB-Union, which was changed to Endor Ltd., which would later become Endor AG.

The developed products were never sole under the name Endor, but rather under the brand name Fanatec®, providing Endor with the flexibility needed, to be able to introduce new brands into varying markets as desired.

In the beginning Endor sold a variety of PC-products like the legendary joystick: „Game Commander“ / „Alpha Twin“ or the official „Command & Conquer Mission Controller“ Trackball. Wheels also played a decisive role early on in the product planning stages.

After the successful launch of the “Le Mans” wheel for PC, the company developed its first officially licensed wheel for PlayStation: the „Speedster 2“. This wheel was marketed directly by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) throughout the entire world and was Endor’s first major successful product. We expanded on our superb relationship to SCEE further with the „Speedster 3“ wheel and the °G game controllers.

Endor worked closely with Turn10 as well, in order to develop the first Forza Motorsport racing game wheel for the Xbox. The „Porsche 911 Turbo S“ and „Porsche 911 GT2“ steering wheels were, for the longest time, the only wheels that were capable for use with the force feedback feature of the Xbox 360 and set new standards with regard to performance, features and compatibility. In fact, in 2011, the first Forza Motorsport licensed wheels, known as „CSR“ and „CSR Elite“ steering wheels were introduced, heralding a complete new era in the realm of consoles.

With time, Endor not only developed an excellent relationship to console manufacturers, but also to the best known and most exclusive car manufacturers in the world. Consequently, it was a huge honor when we obtained the exclusive rights from Porsche to develop an officially licensed wheel, one that is unique in that it is the only product worldwide that displays the Porsche logo but is not directly distributed by them. Over the course of time, replicas of steering wheels that remained true to the original were developed for the console and PC realms of „Porsche 911 Turbo S“, of „Porsche 911 GT3 RS“, of „Porsche 911 GT2“ and of „Porsche Carrera“. Flash drives and PC-Mice are among the products Endor manufactures for Porsche.

The next well known manufacturer that Endor was fortunate to be able to work with was BMW. BMW is famous for its excellent German quality (Germaneering) and was an ideal partner for Endor. Consequently, the “BMW M3 GT2” wheel is no longer just about toys, it is a true to original replica of those in rally car championships.

After going public in 2006 the company was restructured and newly aligned. Our Fanatec® brand is since fully focused on markets for virtual racing (SimRacing) and now offer a wide variety of products for this market segment like steering wheels, high quality pedals, shifters, cockpits and much more. All of these products are available in Europe, North America, and since 2012 also in Australia and Japan. Since the combination of advanced technology, features and quality is the basis for Endor’s past success, it will continue to define it in the future years as well.

Our executives

Thomas Jackermeier, CEO Endor AG

András Semsey, CFO Endor AG
Our brand

Behind the brand Fanatec® stands the „Brainfactory“ Endor®, which is one of the global leaders for high-end input devices for game consoles and PCs.
Our brand Fanatec® is known for its cutting-edge technological innovation and high performance, service quality and worldwide presence.
As a world-widely recognized brand of high quality peripheral devices Fanatec® received reviews as being „very innovative and strong in performance” from experts and insiders in the field.

Our products

Fanatec® products are developed in Germany, produced in Asia and are sold globally in our Fanatec® online web shop.
We develop controllers, racing wheels, pedals, cockpits and connecting accessories for the most important playing consoles and PCs around today.
Our self-imposed goal is to develop the best input devices for and in all product segments.
Our focus is geared toward the quality and the design of the products such that each Fanatec® product is made subject to multi-leveled processes of quality assurance, in order to be able to deliver gaming performance at its highest level. Innovation coupled with an extreme quality standard inevitably leads to better gaming performance and an increase in realism.

Our values

Technology: With every new product Fanatec® releases, a new level of features and innovation is established. Technology, however, is always a means of fulfilling goals like attaining higher levels of realism or improving performance. Features are introduced to make the products better and are based on reflections and feedback acquired directly from our consumers.

Germaneering: Even though most Fanatec® products are manufactured in China, actual product development is done by a network of highly qualified German engineers and technological partners who transform products concept into reality. These types of engineers are the same as those who have drafted and developed electronics for nuclear plants and ultra-precision German CNC machines. We’ve dubbed this concept „Germaneering“.

Quality: We service clients with very high expectations. Precisely for this reason, we’ve placed an extreme focus on creating faultless products. All products a put through a long process made up of a variety of tests including the use of machines, beta-testers, community-testers and test labs.
That’s why some products e.g. the new base of the ClubSport Wheels, can take up to 3 years, starting from the basic idea to its flawless realization. Endor is one of the few companies that puts their products through live-testing and uses testers who conduct continual tests on the products 24/7. By doing so, a time cycles can be simulated and within a just a few weeks, the effects equivalent to more than two years of intense use can be reproduced. Furthermore, we run all of the typical reliability and certification tests and checks to ensure that our products, which are randomly taken from the assembly line, have been exposed to as much stress as possible.

Community: Our product management is very strongly influenced by the feedback we receive from all the communities. We listen very closely to the opinions of our customers or potential customers, in order to be able to react to demands expressed on a certain product and to deliver exactly that desired product to the SimRacing Community. Our short decision lead times help us in this respect, enabling us to reduce our reaction time to meet those demands fast. Moreover, we work closely together with the most important communities to arrange community tests and reviews, since no opinion could be more valuable for the entire SimRacing community than that of an expert whom they know, have chosen and trust and who documents his assessment in a written or video form.

Support: Customer satisfaction is not only our support team’s highest priority, but ranks among the highest within our entire organization as well. We not only see solving any questions which may arise with regard to our complex products as our obligation but as a chance for us to effectively improve in accordance with the wishes of our customers.