Mad Catz files for bankruptcy and is ceasing operations

The board resigned and the employees have gone home

There’s more than one way to skin a cat; this one met its end after a run of poor investments, declining revenues, and ever-growing piles of debt. Mad Catz, a video game peripheral manufacturer, is dead after 28 years of operation.

Yesterday, Mad Catz voluntarily filed petitions for bankruptcy in both the United States and Canada. A trustee has been assigned to the Mad Catz estate in order to liquidate remaining assets in an effort to pay off outstanding debts. All of the company’s directors and officers have resigned from their positions.

This is the end that most eventually saw coming, as the writing has been on the wall for more than a year now. In February 2016, Mad Catz announced that it was laying off one-third of its staff. In June 2016, it came to light that Mad Catz took an $11.6 million dollar loss on the fiscal year. It’s widely accepted that the decision to co-publish Harmonix’s Rock Band 4 was the main factor that caused Mad Catz’s downfall.

Before news of the bankruptcy, Mad Catz was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last week because the value of its shares were so low. It was going for as little as $.04 per share.

This is the end of the road. There are seemingly no more alternatives. A source tells Kotaku that all employees have been locked out of their email accounts and have been sent home. After the liquidation sale, Mad Catz will completely cease to be. The run lasted almost three decades, but Mad Catz’s time is up. One of the most prominent peripheral creators in the video game industry is gone.

Mad Catz Makes Voluntary Assignment in Bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada) [GlobeNewswire]