Logitech this week announced that it has taken over the Saitek brand as well as the family of flight and space simulation game controllers from Mad Catz for $13 million in cash. The acquisition expands Logitech’s portfolio of game-specific controllers and could eventually help the company to address the emerging VR gaming market with custom products.

Saitek was founded in 1979 as a maker of electronic chess games, but diversified into PC peripherals in the 1990s, focusing on custom controllers for driving and flight simulation games. Over time, the company released its own keyboards, mice and even audio products for PCs, but kept its key specialization, which are game-specific controllers for various simulation titles. Mad Catz bought Saitek in 2007 for $30 million and greatly expanded Saitek’s families of R.A.T. mice and S.T.R.I.K.E. keyboards for gamers. Mad Catz continued to develop game-specific peripherals for flight simulators under Saitek brand. In the recent years, it added a special controller for Farm Simulator into its lineup and even inked an agreement with Cloud Imperium Games to build licensed controllers for Star Citizen. Fast forward to today, Logitech acquired only the Saitek brand as well as assets related to Saitek’s line of flight, farm and space simulation controllers, leaving mice and keyboard assets to Mad Catz.

There is a great rationale behind Logitech’s decision to buy only a part of Saitek. Logitech already has gaming wheels products for driving simulation market in its Logitech G product lineup. The addition of Saitek’s Pro Flight controllers (joysticks, pedals, panels, etc.) opens up a new market for the company and does not create any internal competition (unlike mice and keyboards used to be sold under the Saitek brand). While this market is relatively small, customers here tend to be very loyal (partly because they do not seem to have a wide choice of peripherals) and loyal customers are not easy to find.

Logitech says that it has a vision how to evolve Saitek’s product line and while it does not reveal any details, it hints that dedicated game controllers for VR could be a way to go. At present, we only have to wonder what we are going to see from Saitek and Logitech in future, but the transaction in general gives Logitech something to start with when it comes to VR peripherals.

Source: Logitech

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  • Michael Bay - Saturday, September 17, 2016 - link

    That`s all nice, but when will they make a successor to the goddamn G100? I`d buy something from the current lineup, but it looks atrocious, and other manufacturers aren`t much better.

    Just give me standard oldschool shape, decent sensor and long endurance buttons, and I`m buying two or three. And I`m sure I`m not alone.
  • rxzlmn - Saturday, September 17, 2016 - link

    You mean like the Logitech Pro? Perhaps you should actually look at the current lineup before complaining.
  • Michael Bay - Saturday, September 17, 2016 - link

    The thing about G100/G100s was a very affordable price range. Pro is substantially more expensive.
  • rxzlmn - Saturday, September 17, 2016 - link

    That's not at all what you said in your OP though. You claimed there was no comparable mouse available currently, while there in fact is one, just as you wished for.
  • Michael Bay - Saturday, September 17, 2016 - link

    >sucessor

    So no, nothing comparable.
  • Flunk - Sunday, September 25, 2016 - link

    If you want a G100 there are still plenty of them available. I understand why you might be upset if Logitech actually discontinued the mouse shape you like, as I've been buying the G500/G5/Mouseman series for years. But not only do they make a new mouse the same shape, you can still get a new G100/G100s for peanuts if you want one.
  • Zak - Saturday, September 17, 2016 - link

    I like this. I like Logitech and Saitek but never liked Mad Catz. Many people complained that Mad Catz ruined Saitek brand. Although my X52Pro works flawlessly under Windows 10 and Elite. But the software GUI is utter crap.
  • BrokenCrayons - Monday, September 19, 2016 - link

    I'm eagerly awaiting a replacement for my Gravis 2000 joystick. Nothing else has looked or felt quite like it. Its a good thing it predated vibrating force feedback by a few years because if it had shipped with that feature, I would probably have married Wing Commander 3 instead.

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