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Mad Catz paid not to make Guitar Hero

Was intended for PS2 and Xbox.

Mad Catz has revealed the reason Guitar Hero began solely on PS2.

The peripheral maker had been commissioned to make a sister Xbox version, but paid $300,000 to abandon the deal after Konami's legal team came sniffing.

"Guitar Hero was a game that we were actually involved with early on and pulled out because of a lawsuit with Konami," Mad Catz boss Darren Richardson told Kotaku.

"We were doing the Xbox SKU and that's why there was only a PlayStation 2 launch. That's why. We were in there and we pulled out as a result of [the lawsuit] and [Red Octane and Harmonix] went forward and it turned out to be a success, a huge success."

"Everyone else made hundreds of millions and we paid money to not be a part of it. It was brilliant," he added. "I come up with these strokes of genius from time to time. That was my best."

Mad Catz makes a name for itself crafting arcade-style fight sticks for Capcom's fighting games, such as Street Fighter IV and Capcom vs Tatsunoko. The company also unveiled a raft of products at January's CES 2010 last week - details of which can be found on the Mad Catz website.

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