SAN DIEGO, TORONTO & DONCASTER, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 14, 2003--Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. (AMEX:MCZ) (TSE:MCZ), the world's leading third-party video game accessory manufacturer, and Fire International Ltd., a leading intellectual property and technology development firm, today responded to a lawsuit filed on February 10, 2003 against both parties by Electro Source, LLC, which does business as Pelican Accessories. The suit, filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Mad Catz and U.K.-based, Fire International, Ltd. competed unfairly with Pelican in the development and marketing of certain video game products.

Mad Catz and Fire are unaware of any basis for, or facts to support, the claims made by Pelican, and believe the claims are completely and entirely baseless and without merit. In particular all intellectual property being used by Mad Catz in its GameShark products was either developed independently or acquired by Mad Catz when it purchased the GameShark brand and the www.gameshark.com Web site URL from InterAct in January 2003.

Mad Catz and Fire will vigorously defend themselves against the suit and will seek to recover all costs and expenses imposed on them by Pelican resulting from the lawsuit. Additionally, both Mad Catz and Fire are considering filing countersuits against Pelican and its principals.

Morris Perlis, Mad Catz' CEO, and Jason Cooper, Group Managing Director of Fire, jointly issued the following statement, "We are outraged at the claims of Pelican, which are based on total inaccuracies. This ludicrous lawsuit is baseless and spurious. It is an offensive attempt to improperly use the courts to achieve an end that Pelican could not achieve commercially. GameShark was acquired by Mad Catz in an auction that was fairly and legally conducted. It is an affront to suggest otherwise. We will be strongly and forcefully defending this lawsuit and have no doubts of our complete success. We look forward to presenting the true facts. In particular, any attempt to intimidate our customers will not be tolerated."

GameShark is the industry leader in video game enhancement software, which enables players to take full advantage of the secret codes, short cuts, hints and cheats incorporated by video game publishers into their game offerings. The highly popular GameShark web site is one of the highest traffic gaming sites on the Internet. Mad Catz intends to continue aggressively marketing its new GameShark brand and looks forward to continued success as the world's leading third party video game accessory manufacturer.

About Fire International Ltd.

Founded in 1993 by Jason Cooper as a distributor of accessories for the video game market, Fire International and its related companies have increasingly specialized in the development of patented technology, applications and software for the interactive entertainment industry. Areas of specialization, other than game enhancement software include applications for wireless devices and educational gaming. Fire recently secured a contract with Motorola for wireless content billing authentication. Based in Doncaster, U.K., Fire also has offices in Sheffield, Manchester and in the U.S. in Chicago.

About Mad Catz Interactive, Inc.

Mad Catz Interactive, Inc., (www.madcatz.com), designs, develops, manufactures and markets a full range of high quality, competitively priced accessories for video game consoles and portables, including the industry leading GameShark brand of video game enhancements. Mad Catz recently acquired the GameShark brand and starting with the introduction of GameShark for PS2 in March, expects to introduce new GameShark products throughout the year. Mad Catz is a worldwide leader of innovative peripherals in the interactive entertainment industry, with distribution through nine of the top ten U.S. retailers offering interactive entertainment products. With operating headquarters in San Diego, California, Mad Catz has offices in Canada, the U.K. and Asia, as well as distributors in Europe and Australia.

CONTACT:
Mad Catz Interactive, Inc., Toronto
Morris Perlis, 416/368-4449 ext. 239
mperlis@madcatz.com
or
Fire International Ltd., Doncaster
Jason Cooper, 44/(0)1302/325225
jason@fire-international.ltd.uk
or
Jaffoni & Collins Incorporated, New York
Nathan Ellingson or Joseph Jaffoni, 212/835-8500
mcz@jcir.com