Mad Catz Ego Arcade Fight Stick
GameSir C2 Arcade Fightstick

Introduction

In the world of arcade sticks, there exist clones of preexisting arcade sticks. Take a recent case, for example, which is the Mad Catz Ego. The Ego is an anomaly. It is the product of Mad Catz, a once legendary company that has bestowed numerous gaming accessories upon its fans. However, at one point, it declared bankruptcy, and the last time us FGC members heard from it was with the announcement of the Ego, which raised a lot of suspicion.

The Mad Catz website seemed to be down until the Ego was announced, and theories quickly started formulating about the resurrection of this FGC household name. It was swiftly deduced that the Ego was a rehash of a preexisting bestseller otherwise known as the GameSir C2, which has been out of stock on the company’s website for a long time. However, the lineage does not end there. Here is the remaining list of similar arcade sticks:

What could be the reason behind such cloning?

The reasons could in fact be many, but let us focus on the Ego and expand from there. Simply put, it seems that a company like GameSir wanted to reintroduce the spotlight to its arcade stick that was once successful but lost attention. Thus, GameSir possibly contacted Mad Catz to use its name and repurpose the same arcade stick as a new one.

As for the other companies like LeEco, they may have simply cloned each other while avoiding legal conflict, such as by changing the product enough to be on the safe side. What helps is that such products are often released in different countries. For example, GameSir is based in China.

To boil down arcade stick cloning to two main reasons:

  1. It is a form of implicit collaboration between companies.
  2. It is a method of repurposing another company’s hard work without permission or recognition.

Would you basically receive the same product but with different artwork?

In some instances, that could be the case, but there can be downsides from companies producing cheaper knockoffs to you having to deal with inferior customer service. Furthermore, there may be worse or less accessories.

To avoid bashing real companies, take the imaginary companies of Behemoth and Megacon. Megacon repurposes Behemoth’s arcade stick without its permission. After you buy Megacon’s knockoff, you face an issue, contact Megacon, and have to deal with its subpar customer service.

How should you deal with this cloning phenomenon?

Here are two main guidelines:

  1. Go for the clone that is the most recent.
  2. Read at least one review to make sure the clone is high quality.

Optimally, you would make sure the clone was made consensually.

Arcade Stick Clones