One of the best ways to fully immerse yourself in a flight-sim is by using a joystick or HOTAS set up. Not all games end up supporting these controllers but fortunately for Star Wars fans, the upcoming Squadrons will be supporting these peripherals for enthusiasts.
Star Wars: Squadrons is coming out this October and will have single-player and multiplayer components. With Battlefront 2, the best way to play flying missions was often with a standard controller, but EA will be putting some additional attention to detail for Squadrons by fully supporting joysticks on PC.
Well hey, double checked and apparently I AM allowed to tell you that without being tackled by PR!
Yes, we fully support joystick on PC, including full HOTAS rigs with a throttle. 🙂
— Ian S. Frazier (@tibermoon) June 16, 2020
As you can see above, this was confirmed by the game's creative director, Ian Frazier, on Twitter this week. For those who perhaps don't know what a HOTAS is, it stands for “hands on throttle and stick”, which is pretty self-explanatory, going beyond just having a joystick and adding in additional hands-on control.
There isn't a list of specifically supported HOTAS or joystick peripherals, but EA says it will “fully support” them, so there shouldn't be any major omissions from what you can use.
KitGuru Says: I have a HOTAS for Elite Dangerous and it quickly became my favourite way to play these types of games. With that in mind, I'm happy to see EA supporting them in Squadrons. Do many of you own a HOTAS for flight-sims?