Mad Catz is Back in the Game With Multiple New Products

[Raevenlord]

Mad Catz Global Limited, the legendary brand, leading innovation in gaming hardware for almost three decades, announced today a surprise return to the international gaming scene. Less than a year after the much-loved brand disappeared from the gaming landscape, Mad Catz is back: under new management, with new ideas, new attitude and most importantly, an entire range of new, high-quality gaming products!

Known for their award-winning range of R.A.T. gaming mice, arcade FightSticks, gaming headsets and much more besides, the new Mad Catz will focus first on quality, committed to producing innovative gaming products, designed and engineered in-house to stand out amongst the competition and deliver superlative performance for gamers of all abilities. At CES 2018, Mad Catz will be previewing the first products in the new range, a line of all-new PC gaming hardware including new R.A.T. mice, S.T.R.I.K.E. keyboards, F.R.E.Q. gaming headsets and G.L.I.D.E. gaming surfaces.





Key products in the new range include the R.A.T. AIR an-all new version of the iconic, fully-adjustable gaming mouse, now with a state-of-the-art wireless power system. The R.A.T. AIR requires no unreliable battery pack to operate, instead drawing power via the wireless activation gaming surface, included in pack. For gamers preferring to use their own gaming surface, the R.A.T. AIR also includes a robust USB cable in pack, instantly converting the R.A.T. to a wired mouse.

The S.T.R.I.K.E.4 gaming keyboard features a fully mechanical key bed, aluminum frame and RGB lighting, and the F.R.E.Q.4 gaming headset, utilizes high-quality 40mm neodymium drivers and a metal plated frame. Further details of new products in the range are expected to be announced shortly.

"We couldn't be more excited than to begin 2018 by announcing the return of Mad Catz to the global gaming arena. Mad Catz has been a permanent fixture in gaming for almost three decades and we firmly believe it's best days lie ahead," said Selena Chang, Director of Sales and Operations for Mad Catz Global Limited. "Through listening to gamers worldwide, we plan to once again forge a path of innovation in the gaming hardware community, and we're already working on delivering products which we believe will enhance gamers' abilities and do justice to the Mad Catz name. We can't wait to unveil a little more at CES 2018 and in the months to come."

Mad Catz Global Limited will be demonstrating new products in the range through invitation only at CES 2018, taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 9th through 12th, 2018.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Chaitanya]

Weren't they acquired by some other manufacturer?

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

Cool looking products, nice to see them back

 

[Ahhzz]

Weren't they acquired by some other manufacturer?

On September 15, 2016, Logitech acquired Saitek, Mad Catz' simulation brand specializing in computer joysticks for $13 million.[24]
In March 2017, the New York Stock Exchange reported to the company that it was in the stages of delisting the company from the Exchange due to "abnormally low" stock value, which Mad Catz does not plan to appeal.[25]
Bankruptcy[edit]
Mad Catz ceased operations on March 30, 2017, and filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 7 of U.S. Bankruptcy code to initiate an orderly liquidation of its assets.[26]

 

[hyp36rmax]

What about their arcade Fight sticks?

 

[Slizzo]

Yay, I bought a RAT8 to replace my aging R.A.T.7 right before they closed down. Here's hoping they make more RAT products.

 

[darksf]

Well they definitely need to focus on quality.
On My RAT5 mouse the cable snapped on 2 occasions 2-3cm out of the mouse with 1.5 years between and finally i removed the fancy looking crap cable with aluminium wires (they are more prone to crack and snap than copper ones) with a normal copper based USB cable.My 2003 logitech optical crap mouse had a cable snap in 2011 and 2 times fixed the buttons cause of cheap plastic the switch was digging a channel in the actual mouse button but that should be expected from 10$ mouse after 9 years and not from 60$ mouse in just year and a half.
Anyway it is good that they are back cause their products on the design side are really cool ones

 

[peche]

hoping the best for such amazing brand, also hope they dont fall on the new tendency of some big brands to create like 10 editions of the same product, we need quality, no quantity,

Regards.

 

[eidairaman1]

Madcatz "legendary" that's an overstatement, I liked Saitek products better but ohwell. Hopefully logitech quality goes up and not down

 

[lexluthermiester]

Madcatz "legendary" that's an overstatement, I liked Saitek products better but ohwell. Hopefully logitech quality goes up and not down

Disagree. Madcatz made some great things, many of which I still have.

I like this and wish them well!

 

[RoutedScripter]

I have a RAT 5 mouse that I wouldn't change for anything just because it has sideways scroll, such a big deal to me I'm never going back to a standard mouse, this should be a new standard for mixed use case, gaming mouses can probably keep without sideways scroll.

However the wireless power thing is not such a good idea in terms of health, while extremely convenient, that's some hefty EMF exposure risk, thank goodness there's an option for a USB cable.

 

[Ahhzz]

Madcatz "legendary" that's an overstatement, I liked Saitek products better but ohwell. Hopefully logitech quality goes up and not down

" Saitek, Mad Catz' simulation brand specializing in computer joysticks"

Saitek had been part of Mad Catz since 2007

 

[peche]

Madcatz "legendary" that's an overstatement, I liked Saitek products better but ohwell. Hopefully logitech quality goes up and not down

dont know were have you been these years, but mad catz have made several innovative products, like their mice and some joysticks and gamepads,
For example sided scroll Rat 5, which is a interesting thing to address on mouse, also the modular, and customizable design, another remarkable item were their xbox and computer controllers / gamepad, most of their switches and internals have been made by Saitek, since they acquired the brand circa 2006-2007, one of the sad things about mad catz was the price raise on some of their items and somethings faulty products which i guess starting killing the brand, hope this new era of them will be wiser, about their quality, inventory and mostly price,

Regards

 

[hyp36rmax]

Disagree. Madcatz made some great things, many of which I still have.

I like this and wish them well!

Madcatz has always been known as crap and designated for Player 2 situations when it came down to their console peripherals. Their PC gear was always gaudy, edgy and appealing to 15 year old kids. What really brought Madcatz into the game were their arcade fight sticks and game pads that flourished towards the end of the original company, too bad it wasn't enough to sustain the business. With that said... here's hoping for a total rebrand and success for MadCatz 2.0

 

[RoutedScripter]

Saitek made an solid entry level joystick (below 100EUR) with double-throttles the one I still use today. I do not believe there is much choice if you want double throttles.

Many joysticks even the most premium ones don't have double throttles. I don't know if it's a standard practice to use hotkeys/macros to alternate between throttles and adjust them like that, but we're talking about simulators, they suppose to simulate reality, and reality doesn't use hotkeys or macros, it uses separate throttle for each engine

 

[lexluthermiester]

Madcatz has always been known as crap

That is an opinion not shared be everyone.

 

[hyp36rmax]

That is an opinion not shared be everyone.

Definitely anecdotal. Have you ever used their console peripherals in the past? It was way more prominent than their PC division at the time.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Definitely anecdotal. Have you ever used their console peripherals in the past? It was way more prominent than their PC division at the time.

Yeah, I still have a few of them. The Mojo in particular is one of my favorite Android micro-consoles. Have two of them and they both still work. Also have a few contollers for GameCube and PS3.

 

[eidairaman1]

Disagree. Madcatz made some great things, many of which I still have.

I like this and wish them well!

" Saitek, Mad Catz' simulation brand specializing in computer joysticks"

Saitek had been part of Mad Catz since 2007

It just proves a point that I haven't touched anything MadCatz/saitek after that year considering i had a gp from 2003/4 from saitek and the last madcatz controller I touched was in 2000 for a Sega Dreamcast...

 

[hyp36rmax]

It just proves a point that I haven't touched anything MadCatz/saitek after that year considering i had a gp from 2003/4 from saitek and the last madcatz controller I touched was in 2000 for a Sega Dreamcast...

I definitely stand with MadCatz being a low tier brand. Could be a regional thing they did better outside of the US? I remember them being the brand you buy when you cant afford the original PSX/Dreamcast/XBOX controllers. Had to settle for a cheaper plastic alternative for player 2 friends that come over.

 

[eidairaman1]

I definitely stand with MadCatz being a low tier brand. Could be a regional thing they did better outside of the US? I remember them being the brand you buy when you cant afford the original PSX/Dreamcast/XBOX controllers. Had to settle for a cheaper plastic alternative for player 2 friends that come over.

Considering it took 3 different attempts at the madcatz controller to be sturdy on all buttons, triggers, dpad, stick on the DC controller, I had an interact controller that i liked for macro combos lol

 

[hyp36rmax]

Considering it took 3 different attempts at the madcatz controller to be sturdy on all buttons, triggers, dpad, stick on the DC controller, I had an interact controller that i liked for macro combos lol

Ohh man Interact!!! I remember them too! hahah

 

[eidairaman1]

Ohh man Interact!!! I remember them too! hahah

The triggers would stick on those because they were a plunger type, i took 1 apart to see if i could dremel off plastic that cause causing the catching, but never put it back together, that was like 10 years ago now...

I may buy another though lol. I still have the good working mc controller, i will say though the DC controllers whether stock, mc or interact were ergonomic and comfy unlike XB/PS controllers

 

[erixx]

Rumored to be rescued by... Logitech...! That would be a clever strategy to keep the high end mouse market alive.

Using a RAT Pro X here, totally loving it. Solid -maybe best ever- build. Used the software to make some profiles, stored "on-mouse", now runing it without the software.

 

[SaltyFish]

Early Mad Catz was cheap stuff, but at some point they moved up their target market.

They had a bunch of nice well designed periphrials. My RAT7 is still the most comfortable mouse I've owned. The FREQ headsets seemed well designed. Though they did release some... odd things. Apparently, "part of the learning at Mad Catz is the understanding there might not be a market for $300 mobile game controllers" so there's that. I don't know what it means for the future of Mad Catz since they no longer have their designers who helped make all those products with interesting feature sets that stood out from the crowd. Or if they'll resurrect some of their older offerings. What I do know is that they need someone with more than a passable knowledge of the English language to go over their website. There are so many linguistical errors all over the place.