Saitek is pretty much the leading manufacturer of elaborate gaming peripherals. They're the group that makes joysticks with separate throttles, dashboards, and so forth, for flight simulators, driving games, and sci-fi titles. Until now, they were a subsidiary of Mad Catz, which is best known for third-party console controllers, although they also made PC accessories since the DOS era. In case you've never heard of them, Mad Catz also made GameShark.
Now, Logitech has purchased the Saitek portion of Mad Catz's business, which handles "simulation" accessories. According to their blog post, the company plans to merge Saitek into their Logitech G series of products. That's about all the we know of their plans at the moment, though. This should be interesting to follow over the next few years.
Finance-oriented sources claim that the acquisition totals about $13 million USD, in cash.
If there’s one thing Logitech
If there’s one thing Logitech changes, hopefully it will be to improve Saitek’s ATROCIOUS QC, and hopefully raise the general build quality for later models. Saitek have a reputation for cheap-and-cheerful construction at high-end prices, but they’ve been almost the only player in the market for ‘mid range’ HOTAS controls (Thrustmaster have the low-end T-Flight X and the high end Warthog, but nothing in-between, and CH Products only serve the high-end) so have gotten away with it for years.
I was lucky enough to get a
I was lucky enough to get a well built HOTAS (X52). I understand they have consistency issues, but mine is solid from a build standpoint. So from my perspective I am hoping they fix their driver support. Getting the stick working with any given game is always a solid hour of troubleshooting in a best case scenario.
I have been playing Star Citizen a lot lately, and basically just gave up on using the HOTAS because every-time they update the game I need to spend an hour re configuring the HOTAS to get it to work.
>Well built HOTAS
>X52
Pick
>Well built HOTAS
>X52
Pick one.
I guess that depends on your
I guess that depends on your definition of well built. I bought a peripheral for a video game, I don’t expect it to survive a thermonuclear explosion, and certainly not for the price I paid. On a scale of 1-10 I would rate the build quality of my X52 as solid 7. But as I search for support with the drivers it is abundantly clear I am in the minority and most people are getting 3-5 level builds off their assembly line.
My point was, I was lucky that I didn’t get a lemon. Which is a statement in and of itself about MadCatz’s lack of QC. But beyond their actual QC issues, their driver support is also miserable. And Logitech has always been very solid on drivers at every level of peripheral in my experience.
You simply won a lottery,
You simply won a lottery, nothing less or more than that. There is a reason why X52 and ESPECIALLY the X55 are globally recognized as being one of the worst HOTAS-themed products Saitek ever made so far AND one of the crappiest HOTAS ever made out there in the world PERIOD. If yours worked fine so far, that just makes you a part of a very small minority who got extremely lucky.
I had one and it took 7 years
I had one and it took 7 years for it to start having issues, which is a lot longer than any of my Logitech products have lasted
That’s not really something
That’s not really something you can fault Saitek for. I love SC and what Chris Roberts is trying to do, but for all their good efforts his view on controller support is atrocious.
Their in game menus for binding keys are horrible to navigate and they don’t allow controller duplication across various control schemes (coupled, de-coupled etc). None of the settings are automatically stored across updates, and the manual options to back them up are horribly confusing, so as you pointed out even trying to set things up is in part a wasted effort. In order to insult us further their default profile for the x52 stick is the same one they had form the very start with some bindings disappearing as the features was removed from the game or changed.
This is all software though an not the fault of Saitek. If I try to re-install Elite for instance the default profile works for 99% of the features. I usually change two or three bindings, but that is solely because i want some functions on a different button. So it’s not like supporting Saitek gear is in any way impossible.
I really hope they do something about this well in advance of the SQ42 release. Right now I don’t even bother asking my friends to check out SC because the number of things you need to tweak or information you need to memorise before you can actually do something in the game is insane. On a whole I would say the issues are 60% controls and 40% graphics. They really need to expose a detailed menu of graphic options so you can tweak the game to your setup. Right now even my PC with a last gen six core from Intel and two 980Ti cards can’t hit 60 fps at any graphics setting.
Measly
Measly 13-effing-lemons…holy shit Saitek is a cheap-ass these days. Even I could’ve bought it if I wanted to do so. Either way, good to know they’re finally free from the shackles of the “under MadCatz”-slavery. MadCatz is ill-famous for being one of the worst peripherals manufacturers out there, so when Saitek sold it’s ass to these inept shitheads several years ago, I was in utter disappointment. Saitek, alongside the GODLIKE Thrustmaster, were two of the most best peripheral (especially HOTAS) makers back in the late 90s and through to the mid-2000s, always duking it out back and forth, creating a very healthy, almost friend-like competition on the market. Unfortunately, Saitek has fallen out of grace lately, after several major failure products (X52 and X55, anyone? Wow those are truly BAAAAAD. In comparison to the top-notch products Saitek made in the past, that is), essentially leaving Thrustmaster as the only true top dog on the modern market, artificially creating a Thrustmaster-driven monopoly, out of their own (Saitek’s) ineptness. Almost like what happened with AMD and Intel, yes. Quite similar indeed.
Now, though I’m not a big admirer of Logitech and really never gave an ass about absolute majority of their products, I still fully understand that these guys are quite more experienced and way more solid of a manufacturing company than effing MadCadz could’ve ever dreamed to be. It resembles the “Toshiba buying out OCZ’s sorry ass”-situation quite much, and it looks like that this time around such acquisitions can only lead to good things in the end. Let’s just hope that THIS TIME AROUND (without no more MadCatz crap up their ass) Saitek would be able to finally become a decent manufacturer it once was, long time ago.
I totally agree with you. I
I totally agree with you. I have an X52 for so many years I can’t remember when I bought it and it still works great (it was before MadCatz took over the line). All I had to do is clean it and lubricate it one time. I purchased a X52 Pro September 2015 and I have already sent it back four times for repair and I need to send it back again as soon as Logitech starts its repair service; it’s unusable. After MadCatz replaced it, I got about three hours use before it broke again. They didn’t even follow their policy of paying for shipping if the item was being repaired for the same issue. They replaced them all with NEW product, so they said, because the throttle was not repairable. I asked them why I was having so many problems with the X52 Pro when I have a X52 that still works without a problem. Of course they didn’t respond to that question. I would never buy or recommend anything that is affiliated with MadCatz. IMHO there can only be an improvement in the Saitek line of products with Logitech compared to MadCatz.
I thank you for your comments as they express the feelings and frustration that I have had with MadCatz. I love the X52 Pro because it works exceptionally well with Elite Dangerous. I also hope that Logitech brings back the quality of the X52 of yesteryear. The problem I,as well as many others, have is that they have not addressed anything about repairs under warranty. I have a $200 X52 Pro sitting on my desk…a very expensive paperweight!
This is good news. It felt
This is good news. It felt like Mad Catz was just leaving Saitek out to dry by doing nothing with them. The driver support has been horrible.
I have a Pro Flight Yoke and Cessna Pro Flight Petals. The driver support for Windows 10 is poor. I like those peripherals a lot. They are a good deal considering the next quality tier for flight yokes is $700 for GoFlight then $1000 for a Yoko-The-Yoke yoke.
I would love to see Logitech bring some refreshed products to the Pro Flight line of products.
“doing nothing with them”?
“doing nothing with them”? MadFartz literally DESTROYED all of Saitek’s once-great IPs with their imbecility of an “approach”. Just look at what the R.A.T. series has turned into after the MadFartz “took over” Saitek’s products and brands. MadFartz’s pseudo-“R.A.T.” shit-outs are the literal epitome of the word TRASH, while Saitek’s OWN original R.A.T. product was officially deemed by the worldwide PC enthusiast audience as being one of the most high quality and top-notch peripheral devices of it’s time. Saitek’s R.A.T. was always a highly sought-for top dog product, while MadFartz’s so-called “R.A.T.” is an absolute GARBAGE all aspects-wise. That’s how heavily the overall level of quality of Saitek’s IPs has dropped down after they sold their ass to MadFartz.
Totally agree.
Totally agree.
From the looks of posts on
From the looks of posts on the support site and elsewhere, Logitech is screwing people over on warranty claims. I’ve seen a few where Logi has flat out denied the claim because ‘warranties are 90 days unless stated elsewhere’, despite products like the X-52 Pro having a two year warranty when sold.