What just happened? NZXT founder and CEO Johnny Hou has posted a response to the damning Gamers Nexus video that accused the company of running a "predatory, evil" scam with its Flex subscription-based service for desktop PCs. Don't expect to hear an apology, though.
Hou admits in the six-minute video (above) that NZXT "messed up" with some aspects of the Flex service.
One of the first things Hou talks about is the controversial way that NZXT offers PCs for sale and to rent with the same name but slightly different specs. The Player: Three PC, for example, was highlighted by Gamers Nexus for coming with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super graphics card when bought outright, but the subscription version used an RTX 4070 Ti non-Super model. Moreover, the FPS gaming benchmarks for both PCs were the same, which is inaccurate.
Going forward, the "Player" PC naming is being moved out of the Flex subscription so users will no longer be "confused."
Hou also acknowledged that there were ad campaigns from influencers who talked about how the Flex service allowed people to "own" a PC, even though this isn't true. NZXT has pulled all influencer-led Flex advertising and instituted what it calls a more robust creative review process.
Hou does defend NZXT's Flex program, saying some of what Gamers Nexus covered were "misconceptions." He says the only time NZXT has charged a customer more for a subscription is when a state requires it to start charging state taxes, and even in those situations, it gives the customers early notice of the change so they can cancel if they wish.
Hou said the constant changes to the Flex program's hardware specs was another misconception. He blames this on supplies of the parts becoming tighter at certain times of the year.
Privacy concerns were something else that Gamers Nexus mentioned in its video. Hou said NZXT is not in the business of selling people's data and that it will be updating its rerms and conditions to make this clear. He added that every Flex PC that is returned from a customer is fully wiped.
Hou says NZXT still has "a lot of learning to do," and that it can use the situation as a way to "grow as a company."
While the CEO talks about accountability and mistakes and messing up, at no point does Hou apologize or address the high prices of the Flex program – one of the main issues brought up by Gamers Nexus. The fact that there are more than 50 jump cuts in the clip and its short length has not gone unnoticed by commenters, either.
NZXT CEO admits "we messed up" but stops short of apologizing after scathing Gamers Nexus exposé
