The rebirth of gaming peripheral firm Mad Catz is exhibiting a stunning degree of restraint – and with it, promise.
The story of Mad Catz is a little bit of a rollercoaster. My first reminiscence of the corporate is of a very hilariously naff N64 controller that you simply undoubtedly gave to the good friend you appreciated least in Smash Bros and Mario Party classes. Years later the corporate defied that status, with maybe the flagship high quality Mad Catz product being its vary of struggle sticks, timed effectively to coincide with the fighter style revival that got here with the likes of Street Fighter 5 and Mortal Kombat 9. There had been additionally extremely spectacular PC equipment.
Then all of it went improper. Spread skinny throughout what appeared like 1,000,000 completely different classes it felt like the standard started to dip. Then there was determined thrashing about round an Android-based cell console and costly cell peripherals. A lot of people associate Rock Band with the death of the company, however in fact by the point Rock Band four was launched the writing was already totally on the wall because of $250 ‘transforming’ controllers for telephones and $300 non-mechanical keyboards with ineffective additional options like screens. When the corporate went underneath, it was troublesome to say it was surprising.
Now a brand new Mad Catz is rising from the ashes of the previous firm, nonetheless, underneath new stewardship and with a wholly new method. I poked my head in to take a really transient take a look at what they’re planning at Gamescom 2018 and was pleasantly stunned by one key reality: this can be a back-to-basics, no bullshit method, at the least for now.
Latter-day Mad Catz was all the time an organization making high quality merchandise – I used a RAT ProX mouse from them till very just lately and nonetheless use a Mad Catz TE arcade stick – it’s simply that the great things was blended in with an entire lot of garbage, from costly membrane-based keyboards with screens bolted on to these bloody cell controllers – however new Mad Catz is attempting to maintain issues easy, streamlining to only preserve the great things.
For one, they’re at present solely making stuff for PC to permit for focus. They’re additionally sticking to primary merchandise – at Gamescom that they had a spread of mice on show plus a few keyboard and headset choices. The mission of ‘new’ Mad Catz is maybe finest exemplified in how these merchandise look, nonetheless: every thing is black, white or a mix of each, with very light-touch RGB lighting accenting. There’s no garish lime inexperienced or vibrant pink ‘for gamerz’ gear – it’s all comparatively understated and easy. It appears to be like good. From what PR inform me the costs will probably be extra affordable, too, although precise numbers are nonetheless being ironed out.
As for the vary, what I noticed on the present was break up into a couple of classes. For mice there have been three completely different groupings – an excellent low cost, easy vary that’ll be a straightforward impulse purchase. In the center there’s a hardcore gamer targeted vary with options and pricing that run the gamut as much as the ultimate group – feature-laden, costlier esports and event scene targeted mice. The keyboards and headsets are merely high and low finish – membrane versus mechanical, stereo versus full encompass. The vary looks as if a stable place to begin.
Some of those merchandise are instantly primarily based off the previous Mad Catz equivalents – alongside the identify, the newly fashioned firm’s homeowners additionally picked up the rights to lots of these designs. They’re selecting the correct ones to revive, going for the standard ones with out pointless guff. Others are all-new, and the corporate is already teasing one thing all-new with one thing they’re calling ‘Gaming Unlimited (as seen within the embed above), although we strongly hope it steers away from any of the gimmicks previous Mad Catz obtained distracted by.
With headsets, keyboards and mice all returning and searching high quality, it’ll be attention-grabbing to see the place the corporate goes subsequent. Some vital chunks of the Mad Catz enterprise just like the Saitek flight simulator model had been offered off to rivals within the earlier iteration’s demise throes, however the model identify nonetheless possible holds some cache with console gamers after their robust efforts with high-end controllers, officially-licensed headsets and naturally arcade sticks (previous Mad Catz sticks are nonetheless listed as runners up in our record of the best arcade sticks).
It’d be good to see a few of these return – however it’s reassuring to see the brand new Mad Catz take its time. Perhaps fairly quickly they will get one thing listed on the official VG247 Gear List – watch this area.
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