The VIP’s at Mad Catz spent some time with us for a heart-to-heart on their upcoming Street Fighter IV accessory line-up, including their inspirations, community involvement and explains why these are the best Street Fighter & Fighting Game accessories to date.

CHRIS: Chris Carroll here, Sr. Product Manager at Mad Catz and I appreciate the chance to discuss our SFIV products with you.

MARKMAN: Hello SFD, nice to meet you. My name is Mark "MarkMan" Julio and I’m Associate Product Manager for Mad Catz, Inc. I’m also the webmaster for fighting game news site SDTEKKEN.

ALEX: My name is Alex Verrey and I am the Global PR & Communications Manager for Mad Catz.

SFD: Chris and Mark, I hear you guys are Street Fighter nuts! Tell us a bit about your history with Street Fighter.

MARKMAN: I’ve been in love with Street Fighter since day one. I casually played the original Street Fighter with the big pressure sensitive button at a local bowling alley, but like most people, I first got hooked when Street Fighter II: World Warrior hit arcades back in 1991. I was about 9 years old at the time!

CHRIS: My first memories were also with Street Fighter 1 and the huge pressure sensitive punch pads but like Mark didn’t get completely pulled in until Street Fighter II launched. I was 13 when World Warrior launched and spent most of my time riding my bmx bike back and forth to "Indoor Golf", the local arcade. I was new to the area and met a lot of my high school friends in this arcade. For the next several years we would play everything from Street Fighter to Samurai Showdown but always gravitated back to the SF machines.

Inside the Tournament Edition Fight Stick

CHRIS: We have many Street Fighter fans here in the office so we had some great internal feedback to start. Mark has been heavily involved with the fighting game community here in San Diego through his website and has the biggest arcade stick collection I have ever seen. We also worked closely with Capcom and their community manager Seth Killian to ensure the voices of the official Capcom and other popular Street Fighter forums were heard.

MARKMAN: I’m very involved in the fighting game community and have a strong passion for fighting game controllers such as arcade sticks and gamepads… I was able to bring my knowledge about retail and custom arcade sticks and apply that towards our products.

ALEX: As Chris said, it was imperative for us that we worked closely alongside Capcom to really produce a range of authentic product which would simply stand as best in class. We knew that there would be many consumers skeptical of a Mad Catz FightStick, particularly as we don’t have a history in this area. I think this was a real opportunity for us to show the gaming community what we were capable of.

SFD: We saw a Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka and Akuma Fight Pads. Will these 5 character pads be available for both XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3? How did you decide on these 5 characters, and are there plans on more in the future?

CHRIS: Those 5 characters are available for both consoles and were chosen as they are a great mix of the top characters along with what worked best visually. It is possible that we will release other characters in the future but nothing is confirmed at this stage.

ALEX: I’d like to add that at present only the lucky North American consumers get a choice of all 5 FightPad designs. Currently Europe will only be carrying the Chun-Li, Ken and Ryu designs for both Xbox 360 and PS3.

PS3 Controller Faceplates & Console Skinz

MARKMAN: There are two different FightSticks for both the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3. We have both the standard FightStick and it’s bigger bother, the FightStick Tournament Edition. Both sticks feature a long USB cable, individual turbo functionality for each action button, a Vewlix inspired button layout (which allows you to switch between Japanese and American style layout if you so please), the Start & Select/Back button on the rear of the joystick to prevent accidental presses during game play, a switch that lets you set the stick functions to emulate either D-pad, left analog stick or right analog stick, and a locking mechanism that prevents accidental usage of turbo and Home/Guide buttons during play. As you can see, both of these sticks are packed with features that no other stick currently on the market even comes close to…

CHRIS: Mark mentioned the core features which are shared between the sticks. In addition to these, the TE stick is packed with a couple of extra features not found in the standard FightStick. This includes a cable storage compartment that allows you to store and display the TE FightStick with the cable neatly stored within the housing of the stick and rubber feet that when removed, reveal pre-threaded mounting holes for custom installation.

SFD: So tell us… what is the big commotion about the Tournament Fight Sticks? Everyone is talking about it! What makes it so special?

MARKMAN: The Tournament Edition of the FightStick offers the best arcade experience for Street Fighter IV aside from having an actual Vewlix arcade cabinet. If you’ve been keeping up with the news on this arcade stick you’ll know that it has already sold out through preorders on almost every store and website. I honestly think the reason for the demand is due to the massive amount of hype and excitement surrounding Street Fighter IV! One other big reason is due to this being the first commercially available arcade stick in the US to feature authentic arcade parts from Sanwa. If you frequent Shoryuken.com, you’ve probably seen me there talking about arcade sticks. The community there is so enthusiastic and I truly believe SRK is the alpha and the omega of the Street Fighter world… Once SRK approves, word gets out. They tell their friends and their friends tell other friends… You see what I’m getting at?

CHRIS: I think Mark nailed it! The Street Fighter community is huge. Riding the wave with them and collaborating has been an amazing experience.

ALEX: Again, I have little to add here other than the directive for the Tournament Edition Arcade FightStick was to simply not compromise in any area. We set out to deliver the worlds best, most authentic Arcade FightStick. Humbly, I think we nailed it!