Mad Catz Paid $300K to Avoid Guitar Hero's Success

[Tom Goldman]

Mad Catz Paid $300K to Avoid Guitar Hero's Success

Mad Catz was totally not about Guitar Hero, before the company knew how popular it would be.

Guitar Hero is a sort of popular series that has sold millions of copies and generated billions of dollars at retail. You can't take a step in any direction nowadays without hearing about some kid that thinks he's a hot potato for playing whatever ungodly song on expert. In what could be considered one of the biggest "oopsies" of all time, peripheral manufacturer and distributor Mad Catz actually paid to distance itself from the franchise.

Not just chump change either, Mad Catz paid a smooth $300,000. I know what you're thinking: "How could a company be such a silly goose?" Simply, Guitar Hero was an unexpected success when it was released exclusively for the PS2 back in 2005. Mad Catz was involved " early on" and "pulled out because of a lawsuit with Konami," Mad Catz president and CEO Darren Richardson told Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5443725/the-company-that-paid-300k-to-not-make-millions-on-guitar-hero].

Konami was annoyed at the similarity of Guitar Hero to its own GuitarFreaks, which was entertaining crowds somewhat in arcades. Rather than deal with what Mad Catz must have seen as a legal debacle, it paid to get out of its responsibilities to create the Xbox version of Guitar Hero. And that, my friends, is why Guitar Hero was never available on the Xbox.

Richardson went on to say:

Everyone else made hundreds of millions and we paid money to not be a part of it. It was brilliant. I come up with these strokes of genius from time to time. That was my best.

I'm no Mad Catz devotee, but you really have to feel bad for this guy. Not only did the company miss out on potentially trillions of rubles, but also paid for the priviledge. GuitarFreaks wasn't exactly blowing down the charts, so it may have seemed like the smartest move to Mad Catz at the time. It still has to be tough to sleep at night with this decision on the books, when your bed is a regular old mattress and not a giant pile of money.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5443725/the-company-that-paid-300k-to-not-make-millions-on-guitar-hero]

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[Caliostro]

This reminds me of how Will Smith actually passed up the role of Neo in the Matrix because he thought it would flop.

It's one of those things, it was the best idea at the time.

 

[Swaki]

i actually never heard of mad cats before, but i never really buy special controllers that only work to one game, but it seems like a understandable move, nothing can ruin a game like a law suit, like we heard that activision did to brutal legend.

it's kinda hard knowing what to feel, i cant really feel bad for an faceless cooperation because they dint make some money that could have made if they could look in to the future, i mean i would be depressed all the time.

so, law suing sucks and delay or crush the creative minds, stop copyrighting every idea and name you can think of dear video game industry.

 

[anthony87]

Sucks to be them apparently.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

This is an awesome 'aww shit' example.

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

So i don't really get it, were they being sarcastic in their comment on it retrospectively or did they gain something from this, besides a nice anecdote?

 

[GodKlown]

I haven't heard about Mad Catz in a long time... not since PS2 was first out. Given the outlook on the Guitar Hero franchise as it stands in this new year, the money they possibly could have made would have been short lived and possibly poorly invested in creating new devices to service the game that nobody wants to play anymore. Anybody still playing Guitar Hero is pretty pathetic anymore since that fad died quick. I'm fairly sure that DJ Hero was the final nail in that coffin after the surge of band-geek analogs that followed suit after the rise of GH. I agree that sucks they are out $300k, but those are the breaks when sometimes foresight is not 20/20.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

i actually never heard of mad cats before, but i never really buy special controllers that only work to one game, but it seems like a understandable move, nothing can ruin a game like a law suit, like we heard that activision did to brutal legend.

MadCatz usually make replica peripherals, like regular pads with "turbo fire" options, input memory and other neat gimmicks and styles (like the NERF branded controller that could thrown and impact safely), as well as dance controllers (for DDR/StepMania etc.) and other game-specific controllers. I think they also make memory cards and other secondary peripherals.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I'm fairly sure that DJ Hero was the final nail in that coffin after the surge of band-geek analogs that followed suit after the rise of GH.

DJ Hero was the merciful bullet to the head.

 

[ribonuge]

They made my SFIV TE edition fight stick. For that, I love them and feel sorry for them.

 

[Swaki]

i actually never heard of mad cats before, but i never really buy special controllers that only work to one game, but it seems like a understandable move, nothing can ruin a game like a law suit, like we heard that activision did to brutal legend.

MadCatz usually make replica peripherals, like regular pads with "turbo fire" options, input memory and other neat gimmicks and styles (like the NERF branded controller that could thrown and impact safely), as well as dance controllers (for DDR/StepMania etc.) and other game-specific controllers. I think they also make memory cards and other secondary peripherals.

ah okay, i just skimmed true their page and saw like a 10 set controller for an flight simulator and special controllers designed for one particular game, like streetfighter and madden, so i just assumed thats what they where all about.

 

[Simalacrum]

ouch, thats bad luck for them eh?

I never even knew that there was a Xbox version of the original Guitar Hero ever in development... huh, you learn something new everyday eh?

 

[Pimppeter2]

Ouch. We've all had those moments.

 

[Ghonzor]

I must say, ouch.

However, I'm glad a company decided (at whatever the cost) to distance itself from the taint known as "Guitar Hero."

Every step away from it is a good step indeed.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

i actually never heard of mad cats before, but i never really buy special controllers that only work to one game, but it seems like a understandable move, nothing can ruin a game like a law suit, like we heard that activision did to brutal legend.

MadCatz usually make replica peripherals, like regular pads with "turbo fire" options, input memory and other neat gimmicks and styles (like the NERF branded controller that could thrown and impact safely), as well as dance controllers (for DDR/StepMania etc.) and other game-specific controllers. I think they also make memory cards and other secondary peripherals.

ah okay, i just skimmed true their page and saw like a 10 set controller for an flight simulator and special controllers designed for one particular game, like streetfighter and madden, so i just assumed thats what they where all about.

Ah, I forget about their fighting joysticks. Most "true" fighting game aficionados (I'm not one, but understand them due to my weak-but-eager love of Guilty Gear) end up importing expensive precision controllers from Japanese manufacturers. Mad Catz do make pretty much any kind of gaming peripheral, so their eagerness to distance themselves from Guitar Hero is just truly terrible misfortune on their part.

 

[Teddy Roosevelt]

You know Super Smash bros was originally supposed to be a throwaway game just to pull in a few bucks for Nintendo. They were no doubt pleased with its massive initial success in Japan and even bigger success in the US. This just reminded me of that little tidbit.

 

[CloggedDonkey]

god, poor kid. lost all that money and then made piece of crap controllers for the rest of his days*lights cigarette and walks away*.

 

[bakonslayer]

This sucks... I've bought terrible off brand Guitar Hero controllers that barely work and I bet if MadCatz was on the scene I would have another $150 or so... As much as MadCatz can make some sketchy peripherals, they are consistently better than many other similar hardware developers.