Tanita made an appearance at CES 2019 that is currently being held in Las Vegas, where they showed off the prototype for their Virtual-On Twin Stick arcade controller that was successfully funded back in October last year. Currently, they are in the midst of a third Campfire crowdfunding campaign to further increase the amount of produced units, for people who missed out on the limited-order Campfire campaign. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]
The prototype shown is functional, and about as wide as you might expect for an arcade stick. It’s meant to be used while placed on a table, and the bottom has rubber grips to stop sliding. The final product is meant to be thinner and less high-up.
As for button placements and the number of buttons, they are currently not final. There are also plans to add one more button to the sticks themselves, which currently have a trigger and a button.
The sticks themselves are being manufactured by Sanwa Denshi, known for their input devices and switches used in real arcade cabinets. It seems that the current prototype build is quite high quality.
While the twin sticks were shown off at Las Vegas, there are currently no announced plans to bring the arcade stick Westward. The twin sticks were showcased as part of Tanita’s healthcare lineup, the reasoning of which was explained by Tanita back in June when the project was first announced.
The finished product is set to ship out to the backers on November 27, 2019, on the anniversary of Virtual-On’s release. After the production of the 1,000 units, Tanita will look into making more based on interest.
The stick is set to be compatible with A Certain Magical Virtual-On, which is available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The first three Virtual-On games, Virtual On: Cyber Troopers, Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram, and Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force are headed to PS4, and are set to be compatible as well.
