Top brass resign amid MadCatz executive shuffle

Change is in the wind at video game peripheral maker Mad Catz, which announced today that company president and CEO Darren Richardson, senior VP of business affairs Whitney Peterson and company chairman Thomas Brown have resigned.

This is chiefly notable for industry-watchers because, as Polygon points out, this announcement comes the day before Mad Catz is scheduled to make its earnings report for the third quarter of its 2016 fiscal year to investors.

That quarter ended December 31st and thus encompasses the holiday shopping season, when Mad Catz had Rock Band 4 (which it co-published with developer Harmonix) out for sale alongside its traditional array of game peripherals and its Android-powered microconsole.

Mad Catz seems to have a lot riding on the performance of Rock Band 4. Last summer the company picked up a bit of press attention after notifying investors that it had received an audit opinion that included concerns about the company's ability to continue as a "going concern" based on its debt agreements. 

"This language was added because our debt covenants are tied to our budget and, as we have stated, we are anticipating significant growth in sales and gross profit from Rock Band 4 this year." Mad Catz CFO Karen McGinnis told Game Informer at the time. "However, for [auditor] KPMG, there was not enough audit evidence for them to conclude that it is probable we will make those projections since we just started taking preorders. If we don’t meet the projections, we will violate a debt covenant, which means the bank has the right to call the loan."

Since Rock Band 4 launched October 6th, its initial sales performance will be a key piece of Mad Catz's earnings report tomorrow. Ahead of that report, the company is naming Mad Catz CFO Karen McGinnis the new president and CEO, VP David McKeon the new CFO, and Mad Catz director John Nyholt as Chairman of its Board.