Razer debuts new Panthera fighting stick at Evo 2018

In its more than 20-year history, the Evolution Championship Series – better known as Evo to most – has become the place to be for fighting game fans and competitors. Naturally, that means that it's also become a good place for gaming companies to announce new products, especially if those products are related to the fighting genre. It comes as little surprise, then, to see Razer announcing a new version of its Panthera fighting stick at Evo this year.

Officially dubbed the Razer Panthera Evo, this is essentially a souped up version of the original Panthera for PS4. The buttons in particular are getting a pretty big upgrade, as they've been changed to Razer Mechanical Switches. On top of that, Razer is also touting a new case design and the addition of a headphone jack.

Other than those changes, the Evo should be mostly similar to the original Panthera. Once again, the fighting stick is "fully mod-capable" which means that you can open the case up and swap in your own buttons and joystick, if you so choose. The eight face buttons are arranged in a Vewlix layout and, just like the Panthera that came before this, the joystick is Sanwa-made.

There's one other difference in the Panthera Evo: Razer has announced that users will be able to customize its artwork. It sounds like this will accomplished through interchangeable face plates, but at the moment, Razer isn't really talking specifics about customization options.

So, if you own a PS4 and you liked the original Panthera, you'll probably like this one too. We're still a ways out from release, as Razer says that the Panthera Evo will be arriving in fall 2018. When it does, it'll cost $199.99/€199.99.