(he/him) is Polygon’s Senior Commerce Editor for the summer. He has nearly 20 years of experience in media and was a founding editor of The Verge.
A couple years back, Victrix released a gaming controller with swappable front buttons. The Pro BFG for PC and PlayStation 5 could transform from a standard controller layout into a portable fight stick. Since then, Victrix and its parent company PDP were acquired by Turtle Beach, which today has unveiled the modular controller’s spiritual successor. The Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot works as a wired controller for Xbox consoles via the included USB cable, and as a wireless controller (via Bluetooth 5.2 or a 2.4 GHz dongle) for PC, Android, and other smart devices. It’s now available for pre-order for $129.99 ahead of its Nov. 26 launch.
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot retains the spirit of the Pro BFG but replaces the faceplate swapping with a rotation mechanic; rather than having to keep track of various parts, here you can just twist the the left and right modules to reveal a second configuration. The right module can swap between a Hall Effect thumbstick and traditional four-button layout to a six-button layout more akin to a fight stick. Similarly, the left module can rotate between a Hall Effect thumbstick and directional pad layout to just the directional pad and two additional buttons. Both sides twist independently of one another, so you can mix and match based on your style and the game at hand.
As with other Turtle Beach products, audio is a big feature here, with a 3.5 mm headphone jack and special audio mix features accessible from the controller’s Command Display, where you can also customize button mappings. The Command Display can be programmed to display “social notifications from your phone for all your favorite social media platforms,” which is at once a helpful way to keep yourself from grabbing your phone and also quite possibly the biggest distraction mid-match — both fun in their own right!
Where to pre-order Turtle Beach’s twisty Stealth Pivot controller
