CES 2026 is underway, and among all the weird shenanigans, GameSir sure wants to rank high up there: while the event officially opens this Tuesday, January 6th, the company is already sharing details about the Swift Drive, its new controller model that may be released sometime this year.
Spoiler: it has a steering wheel smack dab in the middle of it.
The 360-degree-turnable eyesore even got a trailer, which you can see below:
“Jesus…” wouldn’t even start on stressing how ugly the damn thing looks, but hey, as long as it works.
And work it seemingly will, since GameSir has listed a bunch of cool features, such as:
- Direct Drive Force Feedback: Unlike standard controllers, it features a custom, high-efficiency brushless motor that provides genuine force feedback (FFB). This allows players to feel the road texture and resistance, mimicking the experience of a full-sized sim racing wheel.
- 1080-Degree Rotation: The miniature wheel supports a rotation range from 30 up to 1080 degrees, making it versatile enough for everything from F1 racing to truck simulators.
- High Precision: It utilizes a 24-bit magnetic encoder and Hall Effect sensors for the joysticks and triggers, which prevents stick drift and ensures high accuracy.
- Haptic Triggers: The triggers include individual haptic motors to simulate automotive sensations like ABS pulsing or tire grip loss.
- Compact & Portable: It is built on a body similar to the GameSir Tarantula Pro, offering the immersion of a racing rig in a form factor that fits in a backpack.
- Dual Modes: It supports both XInput and DInput, allowing it to be recognized by a PC as either a standard gamepad or a dedicated steering wheel.
- Customization: The center wheel is replaceable (secured by 6 screws) and features RGB lighting to function as an RPM indicator.
The GameSir Swift Drive started as a high school project
One of the coolest details about the new joystick, however, comes from the fact that the entire concept of the new product came around as a high school project. Reddit user “B-Core” has outlined how he created the initial details before getting in touch with GameSir itself.
Instead of “lol-wut-no-get-out”-ing the kid’s way out of its offices, the company actually paid attention, got interested and made sure to concede a development grant that, eventually, became the full fledged product you see today.
“Woah! Thank yall for the interest and support! I’m genuenly suprised and happy to see the love in the idea. Yes, it wasn’t exactly new, but this is probably as modern as it can gets! I really thought I will see a lot more dout on the practicality or legitimacy, but u guys are right, its super fun and I LOVE IT.
TLDR; This is orginal my highschool project now commercialy funded and RnD at GameSir, no clear plans of production has been made yet, the idea is to make a highly affordable, easy to get on with, modern mini FFB setup good for both Pros/Begineers. But you could try it as early as CES January 2026.”
Typos are B-Core’s, but you get the overall idea.
GameSir is known for making joysticks that are multiplatform compatible, with products working on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Nowadays, they’re as popular as it gets when it comes to third-party accessories — in some cases, even better than the originally branded ones: I used a G7 Pro for our Marvel Cosmic Invasion review (we got a PC code — you try playing that on a regular keyboard and then come back here and apologize to us, ok?) and the thing works wonders.
Some models even have Hall Effect sensors for rumbling, which is leagues better than your regular first-party controller that still run on older systems like the haptic feedback and voice coil actuator combo.
So yeah, while the GameSir Swift Drive might be specifically tailored for racing games like Forza or Gran Turismo, it might not limit itself on “doing the job” but actually going for a full on superior experience.
That is…despite looking like, well, that.
GameSir did not share details on pricing and release as of yet, but B-Core did hint that the thing may come out at a $150 pricetag, which would make it the most expensive controller by GameSir to date.
