It was reported a few days ago that several top execs over at MadCatz had left the company, which includes the CEO and President of the company. Many had speculated that this may be a sign of things to come, especially since the company had placed a huge bet that the accessories for Harmonix’s Rock Band 4 would help bring in some much needed finances to the company, however that didn’t pan out and the sales were not as expected. Compacted with the decline of sales in various other regions for their audio, PC accessories and their failed attempted at an Android gaming console, the MOJO, which was launched in a sea of multiple Android consoles at the time.
Now it seems that the company has just laid off one third of their staff, per Gamasutra, in a restructuring effort.
Today embattled video game peripheral manufacturer Mad Catz announced steep staff cuts as part of a restructuring plan aimed at bolstering its business. The company has let go of 37 percent of its staff in a company-wide layoff.
The company says that the cuts will save $5 million dollars a year beginning from the first quarter of its 2017 fiscal year, which commences April 1, 2016.
The company’s sales were actually up 114 percent year-on-year, to $65.0 million, for its third quarter 2016 (the three months ended December 31, 2015.) Sales of “specialty controllers” leapt up as a proportion of company sales for that period, thanks to Rock Band 4. Mad Catz partnered with developer Harmonix to provide the official peripherals for the game, which launched in October 2015.
This isn’t definitely not good news for MadCatz or the people that just lost their jobs. There hasn’t been any word on if and how this will impact their main source of income, their gaming controller and joystick line-ups, which do well in the fighting game community and tournaments. This news comes at the worst time, especially since their Street Fighter V line-up of controllers and joysticks will be released as soon as next week.
There also wasn’t any word on if this would affect MadCatz’s professional gaming team, Team MCZ.
Source: Gamasutra
