Thrustmaster has become known as one of the most trusted brands for flightsticks and other peripherals relating to space sims and flight sims. Since the advent of modern virtual reality (VR) the company has also happily accommodated these users who want to take immersion to the next level.
At E3 2018 the company had a number of new products on display and Nina spoke to Tim Gorham of Thrustmaster to get some more details about them.
Gorham explained that this year the company were concentrating on products for flight, and with that in mind there were three products that were being showcased; A Rudder Pedal system, a gaming headset licensed by the US air Force and a new flightstick.
The new flightstick is based on an F-18 Hornet, which is a fully compatible add-on for the existing Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog system. “We’re showing F-18 hornet stick, which is usable in DCS the Digital Combat Simulator, and we’re letting people play that on a VR headset.”
The F-18 Hornet stick is set to come out later in 2018 so users will need the existing HOTAS Warthog system and then buy the stick itself, “We’ve built this on an ecosystem which we’re trying to expand so you can match the stick you’re using to the plane you are flying in game.”
“Right now we have three different sticks for three different planes, eventually we’re hoping to do the same sort of thing with rudders, the same sort of thing with throttles and any other accessories that work with flight games.”
The company admits that assembling the perfect immersive system is an expensive endeavour: “We’re really targeting that top niche of pilots who want to come as close as possible to replicate an actual cockpit in their basement, bedroom or living room. The prices are high, but these are exact replicas of what you would see in a real military jet.”
You can watch the interview below, and VRFocus will continue to bring you news and coverage from E3 2018.