PlayStation has revealed new details of its upcoming fight stick, previously called Project Defiant, now officially dubbed the FlexStrike Wireless Fight Stick.
First revealed back in the June 2025 State Of Play, the FlexStrike is the first-ever fight stick officially made by Sony. All these years players have been using third-party controllers, even custom-made solutions, to replicate the controllers of the old arcade systems which fighting games thrived before the age of console gaming.
The FlexStrike’s biggest flex is it’s a wireless controller. It’s compatible with a PS5 and PC wirelessly via PlayStation Link, an ultra-low latency wireless tech manifesting as a USB dongle. It can also be connected via wired should you choose.
For fighting game enthusiasts, the FlexStrike has swappable restrictor gates (square, circle, octagon). These gates determine the feel of the joystick—some players may prefer a different gate for consistent motion inputs. These gates can be swappable without extra tools, and extras can be plopped into a storage compartment that also can store that PS Link adapter and USB-C cable. The face buttons are all mechanical switches, so it should have that good button feel like mechanical keyboards, and, well, good fight sticks.
With the FlexStrike being a first-party controller, it also offer cool, thoughtful features that could only be implemented by the console maker themselves. For example, you only need one PS Link adapter to connect two FlexStrike controllers (the base PS5 only has one USB-C port and one USB port at the front). The Pulse line of headsets and earbuds also can share use of that one PS Link adapter. A regular DualSense controller can still be connected and acts as Player 1’s controller should you prefer to use menus with a controller and not the stick.
The PlayStation FlexStrike Wireless Fight Stick will be available sometime in 2026. The Fight Stick, and sling carry case, will be on display at Evo 2025 at Last Vegas, from August 1 to 3.
PlayStation is heavily invested in fighting games and the fighting game community. It owns part of Evo, the tournament organisers behind what was once the one premier fighting game tournament and now a series of tournament-cum-conventions all over the world. And more recently, they announced Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a 4V4 (!) tag-team fighter with developer Arc System Works leading the project.