Mad Catz Obtains Xbox 360 Accessories License

Darren Richardson, President and CEO of Mad Catz Interactive, stated: "These new products are expected to further diversify Mad Catz' revenue sources. However, in the near-term, we see a continuation of some of the slow market trends that we faced in the first quarter. In our historically strong fiscal third quarter, the Xbox 360 will be released. As an official Microsoft peripheral licensee for North America and Europe, we will produce a range of Mad Catz branded products that will be officially endorsed by Microsoft and carry the Xbox 360 license logo."

Yesterday, C|Net revealed that the Mad Catz license agreement limits the manufacturing on the type of controllers Mad Catz can make. Mad Catz can only manufacture corded controllers, while Microsoft itself is making wireless controllers. The Mad Catz license agreement also excludes light guns, memory units, hard drives and cheat cards. Licensed Xbox 360 accessories include game pads, steering wheels, arcade sticks, flight sticks and dance pads.

The agreement also revealed a new royalty program that will only allow authorized third-party accessories to work with the Xbox 360. This is possible thanks to a new security mechanism that checks if the peripheral is an Xbox 360 authorized accesory or not.