At the beginning of the year, Hyperkin revealed The Competitor, a DualSense-style controller for PCs and Xbox consoles. You know, for competitive gamers. Now, the controller has a price and a release month: Hyperkin tells IGN that it’s coming in October, for just $49.99.
The Competitor, as steady IGN readers will recall, really does look like a PlayStation DualSense, for better or worse. That means swoopy black-and-white plastic, a translucent d-pad that’s four individual buttons rather than a single cross-style piece, and symmetrical analog sticks. It doesn’t have the touchpad portion, so it’s not a dead ringer for what we consider one of the best controllers to use with your PC, but it’s a safe bet that however you feel about the DualSense, there’s a good chance you’ll feel that way about this one, too.
Hyperkin also revealed that beyond its black and white options, The Competitor will come in in blue, red, and gold, as well, though just in the UK, EU, and Australia, with a North American release TBA. Besides looking like a DualSense controller, The Competitor will have hall effects joysticks and triggers, two programmable back buttons, and a mute button – something every pro-style controller ought to have. You don’t get wireless play, though; this is a wired-only affair that lacks haptics and motion controls.
There’s reason to give this controller some serious consideration, if you’re a DualSense fan. IGN’s folks on the show floor at CES in January came away impressed with the button placement, smooth and accurate joysticks. And Hyperkin is the company that brought us recreations of the original Xbox controller, AKA The Duke, and its more reasonably-sized Xbox S follow-up, which Hyperkin called The DuchesS.
For more Xbox gear, check out our guide to the Best Xbox Headsets.
Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom’s Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn’t be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.
