We found a $10,000 gold-plated keyboard and ripped a key off of it

If you've ever thought to yourself, "Boy, I wish I could throw an obscene amount of cash at some stupid piece of gaming tat just to prove to the world that money means nothing to me," the good folks at XPG might have something that's right up your alley. At the now-underway CES 2020, the company is showing off a keyboard that's literally plated in gold, and we got to play with it.

There's a real keyboard underneath that appallingly ostentatious sheen: An XPG Summoner, with Cherry MX Speed Silver switches (shameful it includes a reference to the metal for Poors—you'd think they could have come up with some proper Glorious Gold switches to avoid accidentally attracting any undesirables) and RGB lighting. The keycaps and base are gold plated, but the wrist rest is not, according to Tom's Hardware, although it's colored to look the part. And in case there's any doubt, it is totally functional. Our man Jarred, on the scene at CES, said that it "feels like gold" when you type on it, whatever that means—metallic, I guess?

He then yoinked the Escape key off of this $10,000 keyboard. Because that's how we roll at PC Gamer.

The keyboard is hideous, to put it bluntly, and exists only as a grotesque monument to the most conspicuous of consumerism. The irony is that if you're wealthy enough to be able to afford one of these things, you can probably finagle one for free: XPG told us that it recently gave one to a Saudi prince.

After Jarred was done dismantling the literally-gold-plated keyboard for our video, I offered him 20 bucks to dump a Coke into it. I may have underestimated his resolve.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.