Is there anything more satisfying than the crunch of Doritos? Some gamers would disagree, leading to the brand creating a “crunch silencer.” You read that right, PepsiCo’s Doritos brand is dabbling in technology to silence the various crunches for gamers. With that brand of chips being preferred by gamers worldwide, this seems like an odd decision.
PepsiCo estimates 85% of gamers in the U.S. have consumed the Doritos brand in the last three months. However, their research shows roughly a third of individuals reported hearing the crunching impacts their gaming performance. Seriously, can people just not mute their mics when they snack while gaming? To help combat the crunching, Doritos is debuting “Doritos Silent.” Gamers will download the Doritos Crunch Cancellation software, which will filter out detected crunching sounds.
“The connection between Doritos fans and the gaming community is undeniable,” global marking head of PepsiCo, Fernando Kahane said in a statement. “Both boldly and unapologetically embrace their individual flavors. ‘Doritos Silent’ recognizes this bond and demonstrates the brand’s continued commitment to innovation and elevating the experience for gamers who choose Doritos.” The software took six months to develop as it utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to learn and analyze over 5,000 different crunch sounds.
Gaming is considered one of the most popular activities around the world. Approximately 213 million Americans, about 65% of the population, play at least one hour of video games a week. These estimations come from data procured by the Entertainment Software Association. DataProt estimated that 3.25 million gamers worldwide are part of the $197 billion video game market.
We understand getting frustrated with gaming online and only being able to hear someone crunching on their snacks. The chip brand actually creating a software that filters out and silences crunching noises, sounds like something from a bad science fiction plot. Ultimately, we don’t know how to feel about this.
