If you have ever purchased a third party accessory for your console, the name Mad Catz might be familiar to you. The company known for their cheap memory cards, off-brand controllers, and other peripherals has just filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. Mad Catz and its subsidiaries will be liquidating their assets, as well, and the officers and directors of the company have all stepped down as of March 30, 2017. Founded in 1989, Mad Catz has acquired brands like GameShark, Tritton, and Saitek. The cause their demise is thought to be due to the poor sales of Harmonix's Rock Band 4, which Mad Catz was in charge of, taking financial responsibility for marketing and lacking sales of peripheral hardware.

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[goldensun87]

April Fool's.

 

[driverdis]

Most of the stuff I had from them was junk, however I did keep an inline headphone amp cord from a pair of Tritton headphones as it works pretty well and does not sound half bad.

At least MadKatz was not as bad as InterAct.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

One of my favourite Original Xbox controllers were and still are from Mad Catz. Mad Catz took the best approach to making a rival worthy against the original OX controllers.

As everyone can see, the d-pad is actually a d-pad and not some turd pretending to be a d-pad like Microsoft had on their controllers until late Xbox 360 era (with the special edition 360 controllers featuring a real d-pad).

Farewell, Mad Catz.

 

[Foxi4]

That's a bit of a shame. It's a really old company, these guys have been around since the 16-bit era, perhaps even before it, so it's sad to see them go. They actually used to make good accessories, but in recent years quality declined noticeably and they've made a bunch of weird, probably costly decisions, like releasing their own Android microconsole for... reasons? Sad to see them go, I hope someone picks up the brand and makes it great again.

 

[Bladexdsl]

ok april fools is over

 

[FAST6191]

I had a mad catz dreamcast controller and it was more accurate and comfortable than the original SEGA controller.
Good old days.

Is beating the dreamcast stock controller in comfort really a high bar?

As far as the RAT mice go I don't really regret mine, though I mainly only got it as it was the only not complete junk mouse I could find in the real world when the previous one kicked the bucket, but I was never massively enthused by it. Now tecknet has entered my life ( http://www.tecknet.co.uk/products/pc-peripherals/gamings.html?limit=30 ) and did to this sort of thing what all the Chinese "action camera" makers did to gopro, which is to say made a perfectly functional equivalent at a price more in line with the bill of materials.

Younger siblings everywhere rejoice

Wouldn't that require there to still be such a thing as local co-op and local multiplayer?

 

[Gon Freecss]

I remember the Game Cube cards

 

[pastaconsumer]

Their GameCube memory cards sucked... The summer of '07 was the saddest summer break...

 

[Deleted User]

You saw nothing! Lousy phone keyboards.


18 dollars? That's being really generous.

everything's documented lol

 

[AkiraCast]

One of my favourite Original Xbox controllers were and still are from Mad Catz. Mad Catz took the best approach to making a rival worthy against the original OX controllers.

As everyone can see, the d-pad is actually a d-pad and not some turd pretending to be a d-pad like Microsoft had on their controllers until late Xbox 360 era (with the special edition 360 controllers featuring a real d-pad).

Farewell, Mad Catz.

Yooooo, that was the controller I beat Ninja Gaiden with. Damn, great memories.

 

[air2004]

Some cats are gonna be mad.

 

[ArugulaZ]

I don't think MadCatz was the absolute worst when it came to third party controllers and accessories. I had this one combination rumble/memory pack for the Nintendo 64. It was covered in glittering red paint and worked maybe half the time. I don't think you could even use both features at the same time; you had to switch between the save and vibration. I think the manufacturer was PlayTech, and it sucked the maximum amount of ass allowed by law.

I do think MadCatz tried in vain to fill that Sega Saturn pad-shaped hole in my heart with various six button controllers for the Xbox 360, but none of them were ever as good as Sega's pads from the mid 1990s. They also made this monstrosity, which was only good for hacking projects. I was so excited that it had a dial on the bottom, until I learned that the plastic didn't move freely the way a good spinner should. The copper pads on the PCB were easy to solder to, though!

 

[dronesplitter]

My big memory of buying third party stuff was a Performance brand N64 memory pak plus...damn thing never worked, always corrupted my games. I have tried to always go first party after that (and that was after I bought a third party RAM expansion pak that hardly worked too).

 

[PrincessLillie]

All my Pokémon XD saves are stored on Mad Catz GameCube Memory Cards.

 

[Sheimi]

Mad Catz had some good memory cards and a good controller for the GameCube. Which made it easier to speedrun Sonic CD when I was a kid. Got some insane times then. Now, I can't come close to them for now.

 

[Bladexdsl]

so this is real?

 

[Gadd]

remember, there was some kind of mass shooting in usa at the time of dreamcast release, so sega wouldn't put out an official lightgun from japan, so the official endorsed one was made by Mad Catz! HotD! Sirrrrr Golllllld

 

[driverdis]

All my Pokémon XD saves are stored on Mad Catz GameCube Memory Cards.

I did this once, it cost me 3 runs of MGS Twin Snakes (I had the bandana, stealth camp, and suit) and was in the middle of a fourth run when it died. It was dead dead, I left the card in a drawer for a few years until Wii homebrew came out to read corrupted GC cards and nothing could be recovered.

 

[death360]

I don't think I ever bought anything from their brand nor will I ever lol.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

I don't think I ever bought anything from their brand nor will I ever lol.

More for the rest.