HORI has announced a new fight stick and PS5 controller that bring some fighting edge to the steadily growing field of third-party PS5 controllers. The Fighting Stick α for PlayStation 5 will launch at $199.99 and the Fighting Commander OCTA for PlayStation 5 will begin life at $59.99, though there's no word on when pre-orders will go live.
In brief, the details are as follows: the Fighting Stick α is a customisable tournament-grade fighting stick "equipped with HORI's legendary HAYABUSA lever and HAYABUSA matte finished buttons", as well as interchangeable artowkr and programmable button profiles; and the Fighting Commander OCTA is "the ultimate controller for 2D fighting games" with a single analog stick and six face button layout, as well as an ergonomic, wired design, and customisation options galore too.
There has long been an audience who prefer specialist fighting gear and controllers as opposed to 'normal' console gamepads, and this news will be music to those folks' ears. Specialist fighting controllers, sticks, and pads offer greater responsiveness, flexibility, and crucially speed.
These officially licensed entrants now present a genuine means for fans of fighting games to get PS5-specific (though they will be compatible with PS4 and PC) controllers into their setups instead of relying on the (albeit excellent) DualSense.
In a broader, third-party controller view, Scuf entered the PS5 third-party controller fray with a bang recently when it launched its Reflex models (and subsequently broke its website, selling out in minutes). Scuf was the first third-party manufacturer to launch extra controllers for the PS5 system, and demand is clearly here - such a fighting specialism will only add to that demand.
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