Our Pearl series of shells (and matt black) were created way back in 2007 when I dominated the Xbox 360 and PS3 scene with my controller mods. I was creating custom controllers with rapid fire chips, hardware, software and shells.
The issue with the Xbox/PS was high stress intense game play sessions lead to sweaty hands and slipping grip. I started by making a rubber composite to add to the thumbsticks to stop your thumbs slipping while using the analog sticks. This was so popular I went on to find a way to treat the entire console with what I dubbed the "anti-slip coating".
This coating was again another run away success. I sold that modding business to move into a software startup I founded, but got back into the console business this time in retro consoles, and thought I should re-introduce the anti-slip finish into the retro consoles.
The benefits of the anti-slip is it adds a protective finish to the underlying shell, gives a matt appearance, as well as an amazing high quality soft touch feel. The soft touch really makes the consoles feel even more premium.
I started with the all black shells for Game Boy Advance (which are our fastest selling shells in the history of the company by the way), and then I began to wonder if I could use the same anti-slip/soft-touch properties of the rubber but transparent. Turns out I could. I then topped that off with making custom paint colors and adding pearl powder to the mix.
Coating the shells with the high quality paint + pearl, then topping it off with the clear anti-slip coating gave an surreal appearance. Color shifting from light shades to saturated shades as you move the product around, along with the protective soft-touch matt finish made such a unique and high quality product that rapidly became popular.
How long with the finish last?
As it is a painted surface, like any paint job with abuse and time it may wear down. However similarly with any paint job you look after, it can last many many years.
The coating is tougher than you think, and you are not going to damage these easily, with your fingernails for example, or dropping it on a floor from waist height.
When I coated the Xbox/PS controllers back in 2007, with heavy pro gamers using them daily, I never got a single complaint of any wear. So honestly, time will tell, but I have yet to ever receive any complains of any wear issues, ever.