Sony’s FlexStrike fight stick out in August

Just a few hours ahead of its June 2nd State of Play presentation – which looks to be something special for a few different reasons – Sony revealed the release date and retail pricing of the FlexStrike, the company’s own official fight stick controller. It will be available on the same day that the mightily impressive Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will be released for the PS5 and PC – on August 6th – for $199/€199/£179.99/¥34,980. Preorders start on June 12th at Sony’s official PlayStation e-shop and at participating retailers.

Initially known as Project Defiant, the FlexStrike fight stick is Sony’s first PlayStation controller specifically designed for fighting games. It sports a number of unique features licensed third party fight sticks do not, such as support for the company’s proprietary PlayStation Link wireless adapter (for low-latency connections) and a cool, decidedly PS5-aligned aesthetic (it’s also compatible with PCs). Sony released a Design Story video explaining the thinking behind the design and functionality of its new accessory, as seen below.

At $199 the FlexStrike fight stick does not come cheap, but it’s still competitively priced compared to some of the most popular, high-quality controllers of the same type in the market right now. Hori’s Fighting Stick Alpha costs $219.99, Nakon’s Daija costs $249 while the “Ferrari” of this category, Turtle Beach’s Victrix Pro FS, costs $399. All of them are moddable and feature switches the fighting games community loves, but none of them is wireless or comes with a matching carrying case. If Sony has actually nailed it when it comes to the FlexStrike’s switches’ and buttons’ quality, the stick’s responsiveness and overall “feel”, it could do very well, given that it will probably see a bit of a marketing push along with Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls.

In the same official PlayStation blog post announcing the price and release date of the FlexStrike, Sony also confirmed the upcoming availability of its new gaming monitor unveiled back in November. This looks like a nicely-designed but otherwise typical 27-inch, 1440p, 120Hz IPS LCD monitor (it supports up to 240Hz when connected to a PC or Mac) that sports a specially-designed hook for stylishly storing a DualSense controller and keeping it charged at the same time. What’s noteworthy about it is its price, which is – surprisingly enough, at least for a Sony product – rather affordable at $349.99.

What this price point also implies is that gamers should not expect top image quality from this particular gaming monitor: there’s a reason why Sony’s other gaming monitors, which are either based on OLED panels or feature Full Array Local Dimming backlighting, cost three or four times as much. But this monitor does offer most of what more expensive ones usually come with – including two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, USB-A/USB-C ports and stereo sound – so, for that price, it seems like a simple, convenient way to game with a PS5 on a desktop. It will be available in the US and Japan on August 27th.