Sim racing is an expensive hobby, but at least it’s a pretty easy one to wrap your head around. You buy a steering wheel and pedals, maybe something to mount them to, and then you’re quite literally off to the races. But what if you don’t have the room, the money, or can’t physically play with all those inputs? Gaming peripheral maker GameSir might have the solution: a controller with a mini force-feedback steering disc, powered by a direct-drive motor.
The moment I learned about this thing, I was fascinated. See, steering wheel controllers have existed for a long time, and their execution and intuitiveness tend to be hit or miss. But what makes GameSir’s prototype here—called “Codename: Swift Drive” and just unveiled at CES 2026—unique is the force feedback system powering it.
Like the best sim racing wheels of today, this tinier, thumb-steered version incorporates a direct-drive motor, rather than gears or pulleys, for more linear and precise feedback. It also strikes me as a reincarnation of Namco’s Jogcon, a controller made by the game developer and publisher for the original PlayStation, that was specifically designed for Ridge Racer Type 4.
Similar to the Swift Drive, the Jogcon had a big rotating disc that would jerk counter to the player’s inputs to convey oversteer, but the feedback was weak and vague, which shouldn’t be terribly surprising given that we’re talking about a 30-year-old accessory. The Jogcon was barely supported—only R4, Ridge Racer V, and Infogrames’ V-Rally 2 were explicitly designed to take advantage of its unique capabilities—and, though it may be sacriligeous to say as a Ridge Racer fan, I never got to grips with it.
The Jogcon could feel good when I nailed a drift just right, but centering the vehicle between the corners always felt like a chore to me. Plus, Ridge Racer isn’t a series that has ever lent itself well to realistic automotive inputs. The physics system is about as arcadey as racing games get, so it only makes sense that it feels most at home with a directional pad or analog stick.
Still, I believe there’s got to be something to this idea, and maybe GameSir can finally realize it with modern tech. In the video the company posted to X, a player smoothly navigates the Nordschliefe in a Schumacher-era Ferrari F1 car, hitting most of the apexes and never spilling. Speaking of which, I would hope this direct-drive disc doesn’t pull with torque proportional to direct-drive steering wheels, because I’m just wincing thinking about the potential for thumb injury.
It should be said that those shift lights are cool too, even if they’re almost guaranteed to be out of the player’s line of sight to the display, unlike on a real steering wheel. It’s the sentiment that counts. According to GamesRadar, the Swift Drive was developed by a high-school student who happened to be fluent with a 3D printer. They took their work to the company, and the rest is history. I hope to try it out someday, assuming GameSir puts it into production.
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