Mad Catz paid not to make Guitar Hero controllers

Mad Catz, manufacturer of controllers and peripherals, has disclosed the beginning of Guitar Hero franchise and how it actually came to detach itself from the project, for a fee.

According to Mad Catz boss Darren Richardson the company was commissioned to create the controllers for the Xbox version of the original Guitar Hero, which launched only on the PlayStation 2. The deal got a bit iffy when Konami's legal team caught wind of the project however and Richardson ended up actually paying to break the contract and detach Mad Catz from the franchise before it had yet gathered acclaim.

"Guitar Hero was a game that we were actually involved with early on and pulled out because of a lawsuit with Konami," Richardson told Kotaku.

"We were doing the Xbox SKU and that's why there was only a PlayStation 2 launch. That's why. We were in there and we pulled out as a result of [the lawsuit] and [Red Octane and Harmonix] went forward and it turned out to be a success, a huge success."

Richardson revealed that Mad Catz paid $300,000 USD in order to break the contract with Activision, over fears of the Konami lawsuit.

"Everyone else made hundreds of millions and we paid money to not be a part of it. It was brilliant," he added. "I come up with these strokes of genius from time to time. That was my best."

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