Interesting.
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Ouch. But to be honest I could never find any of their products alluring.
Even factoring in the low price it simply didn’t click for me.
Still, sad for the people working there.
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I think they went wrong taking the race to the bottom in recent year. I agree most of their stuff was so cheap and lacked quality. Hopefully some of those employees may stay in the game and bring us some cool new stuff.
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Don’t forget, the Saitek division was sold to Logitech. So there is that.
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Maye also the increase in self made projects thanks to a lot of interesting hardware (Raspberry Pi, Leo Bodnar…) undermined the “cheap stuff” segment of the market.
This one is a hard one. Saitek x52 to me was an unbeatable bang for buck product. I have the original still in use (before the x52 pro came along). For the money i spent, there really is no better value. It must surely be 10 years old now. One rotary has a spike and the stick has some slop in it but still very usable
Also i have the x52 pro pedals. These are also excellent, lasted far longer than i can think, and have absolutely zero spikes on any of the axis. This must be 7 or 8 years old. I did damage it though after a nasty drop where an internal guide rail broke. I just ripped it out and works like a charm.
So for me, Saitek products were excellent.
Saying that though, i did follow with severe intent the madcatz offerings of the x55 and x56 as well as the take over of the drivers that effected my glrious x52.
I never did upgrade though because of two reasons. One my x52 was still perfectly usable and two i was hearing quality control issues with madcatz.
I think its sad that this company went under. Saitek had a fantastic place in the market offering good products for an excellent price. Now what is going to fulfil the gap of " best bang for buck" products?
There is a big hole now. We have cheap end then the big jump to high end. Thats a problem for the simming industry as thse that want to get into it will be forced to pay even more money to have a semi decent go at it, and that is never a good thing.
You could argue though that you may get some bargain prices now on the x55/x56. In their own right these are good stick, but with the quality control of madcatz being a bit rubbish, would you role the dice on a discounted stick with no support or recourse?
My old X52 was modded into my collective now, I have also had 2 sets of pro rudder pedals and a yoke and quadrant that are still good as new. The biggest shame is that it was an affordable way into flight sims, starting out I bet none of us would have bought a 300ÂŁ Hotas when we first delved into PC flying. I started with a 20ÂŁ MS sidewinder then 100ÂŁ for my X52 when I thought this is my kinda gaming and then the 300ÂŁ warthog when they where first released. With out saitek I might never have taken the essential leap
Ahem… http://blog.logitech.com/2016/09/15/creating-immersive-gaming-experience-logitech-acquires-saitek/
Wow. Even after selling off Saitek.
Thrustmaster makes a phenomenal mid range HOTAS in the T16000 FCS. It’s fairly well made, has Hall sensors, and it comes with rudder pedals, so there’s hope.
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