« Mad Catz Looking to Take on Hori in Japan »

VS.

The Mad Catz fightsticks have been tremendously successful in the US.  There's no doubt about that.  Just go to a major tournament and count how many Mad Catz TEs and SEs you see.  Mad Catz is hoping now to extend that success to Japan; hoping to take on Hori.

According to Alex Verrey, Mad Catz' spokesman, arcade stick manufacturer Hori currently has the licensing rights to Street Fighter in Japan. Verrey said that they'd like to change that, and so do some very important players.

At the most recent Tougeki: Super Battle Opera (SBO), a famed Street Fighter tournament in Japan, seven out of ten of the finalists owned Mad Catz sticks, Verrey said.

"What makes it even more amazing is that they aren't made officially in Japan, so they had imported sticks across from the U.S. which is unheard of really because it's normally the other way round," he said. "The interest now has peaked in Japan and has given us a foothold in the Japanese market so we are actually releasing the tournament edition of the sticks without the graphics."

Mad Catz can't release sticks with Street Fighter graphics because of Hori's license, but they hope that will change.

Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori "Ono loves our stuff," Verrey said. "He'd love to broaden that relationship.

"It's something we would like to look at, it's something we are keen to pursue."

Source: Kotaku