The New PlayStation 5 Fight Stick Is Way Weirder Than It Looks

Sony’s new controller for PS5 is unlike any of its other twin-stick, two-handed controllers, and not for all the obvious reasons. Sony’s “Project Defiant” fight stick now has a new name, FlexStrike, and a vague release date—2026. But the more intriguing, and more annoying, aspect of the fight stick is how it will connect to your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Pro.

The FlexStrike features all the face buttons and triggers of a regular DualSense controller along with a single Japanese-type fight stick with a ball top. All the buttons are based on mechanical switches, which should offer a more tactile, clicky experience than anything you get with a controller. What’s special about the FlexStrike is it includes a bottom panel that’s stacked with several different types of restrictor gates. There’s a square, octagon, and circle gate that plug in underneath the stick to offer a feel that’s specific to your favorite arcade cabinets.

All that would be good enough for today’s demanding fighting game aficionados. However, FlexStrike isn’t just any other Bluetooth controller; it’s also using a proprietary connectivity standard called PlayStation Link. It’s a 2.4GHz connectivity that’s specific to PlayStation through a special connectivity codec and offers faster response times than Bluetooth. Microsoft uses a similar proprietary standard for devices to connect to the Xbox Series X (you can’t connect Bluetooth headsets to Xbox consoles without an adapter). Sony hasn’t talked about this standard since early 2024, when it debuted the PlayStation Pulse Elite headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds. Both those devices use a USB-A adapter you need to plug into your PS5 or PC first. The new version coming with FlexStrike uses USB-C. That’s a pretty important change, since the slim version of the PS5 and the PS5 Pro no longer have USB-A on the front panel.

You can connect up to two FlexStrike controllers to a single PlayStation Link and use them alongside your Pulse audio products. Your regular DualSense controllers work over Bluetooth, and Sony said you can have both going at the same time should you want to swap back and forth for navigating menus. If you don’t want to plug the PlayStation Link into your PC or console, you can use a simple wired connection instead.

In the time since PlayStation Link hit the scene, Sony has made numerous updates to its consoles and pushed out its $700 PlayStation Pro console. Why Sony didn’t simply build PlayStation Link into its premium gaming hardware is a mystery I couldn’t begin to solve. If companies continue to use proprietary 2.4GHz codecs, then they should be more like HP with its HP Omen Max gaming laptop, which makes the connection to the company’s own products seamless.

Sony should start thinking about a universal 2.4GHz connection for all its products. The company also sells Inzone buds and headsets for gaming with a separate 2.4GHz dongle, which isn’t the same codec as PlayStation Link. Then there are products like the Bravia Theater U neck speaker, which plugs into a PS5 controller to access the console’s touted 3D audio features. Why, oh why, can’t we have a single dongle for everything? Or, you know what’s even better? No dongle at all for low-latency connections.