PlayStation has announced its latest peripheral, a wireless fight stick that’s currently codenamed Project Defiant.
Fittingly, it was revealed during today’s State of Play presentation, right after retro-remastering experts Digital Eclipse announced their latest game, the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Collection, which will bring nine classic Mortal Kombat titles to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC sometime in 2025.
According to a PlayStation Blog post, Project Defiant uses PlayStation’s proprietary PlayStation Link technology, which “provides ultra-low latency,” though it’s not a wireless-only fight stick, as it does work with a wired connection as well.
The short trailer for the fight stick that we saw during the presentation just gave us some glamour shots of the new game pad, which bears the signature white and black PS5 pattern. Notably, the fight stick will come with a sling carry case, according to the Blog post, presumably to make it easier to transport between fighting game tournaments.
Project Defiant also touts “a high-quality digital stick that’s custom designed by Sony,” and “toolless interchangeable restrictor gates (square, circle, and octagon) for the stick, buttons with mechanical switches, and a touch pad like the one found on the DualSense controller.“
We won’t hear more about Project Defiant, like the price or what it’ll officially be called, until 2026, when it’s expected to launch. Considering the large fighting game community that exists on PlayStation, it’s a wonder why the company hasn’t made its own fight stick before. But at least it’s on its way.
Speaking of fighting games, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Collection wasn’t the only fighting game revealed during the State of Play, as we also got the reveal of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Soul, a new 4v4 fighting game from Arc System Works, set to launch in 2026.
