Mad Catz is back in business. On Thursday, the longtime gaming peripheral maker announced a surprise return to the global gaming scene after recently falling on hard times.
Signs that Mad Catz was in trouble surfaced in early 2016 when CEO Darren Richardson and Chairman Thomas Brown both stepped down. A major restructuring followed in which the company jettisoned 37 percent of its workforce.
In September of the same year, Mad Catz sold its Saitek brand of flight, space and farm simulation controllers to Logitech for $13 million in cash. In late March 2017, the gaming peripheral maker filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy and vowed to liquidate all of its assets to help pay back lenders.
Mad Catz, now officially known as Mad Catz Global Limited, said on Thursday that it is under new management with new ideas, a new attitude and most importantly, a new range of products. Conveniently enough, the news comes just ahead of CES where Mad Catz plans to showcase several new products 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.
CNET spoke to longtime company spokesperson Alex Verrey who said nearly all of Mad Catz's assets were acquired by a Chinese holding company that wants to keep the brand alive. According to Verrey, some of the new owners are very familiar with the brand as they worked in the factories that manufactured the company's products. They saw an opportunity to continue doing what they had already been doing but now, they work for themselves.
CES will take over Las Vegas on January 9 and runs through the 12th.