Wait what? You read that correctly, Mad Catz — grown into the biggest peripheral maker in recent years — has announced the formation of ThunderHawk Studios, a studio focused on developing a series of MMO flight simulator games to be published by Mad Catz. The first game is expected to launch in 2012.
Flight simulators are one of the most peripheral-intensive genres out there, especially now that the music game genre has lost theGuitar HeroandDJ Herofranchises. And there’s not much point in aDance Centralperipheral, is there? So it makes perfect sense for them to get into flight simulators and popularize the genre to sell more joysticks, although the announcement of a development studio comes as a surprise.
Mad Catz also owns Saitek, considered by many to be the creators of some of the finest joysticks out there. At least, back in the late ’90s when I still kept track of them. Maybe they can fill the void left by the popular era ofJane’scombat flight sims,F-22: Air Dominance Fighter,F-22: Total Air War,Falcon 4.0,X-Wing AllianceandFreespace 2? Good luck to them if their first game is a World World II game that has to compete with theIL-2 Sturmovicseries orCliffs of Doverthough.
Pssst ThunderHawk Studios, we could use a newF29 Retaliator. Zulu Alert! And set it in space while you’re at it. Pretty please?
