- Primary Subject: Fighting Game Tournament Hardware
- Key Update: Major fighting game tournaments are switching from PS5 to Xbox Series X due to performance and reliability issues.
- Status: Published
- Last Verified: 2026-08-19
- Quick Answer: Major fighting game tournaments are ditching the PS5 for Xbox Series X consoles because of consistent performance problems like overheating and input lag.
For what feels like the better part of a decade, the fighting game community has been stuck using PlayStation consoles. Due to increasingly terrible performance, a few organizers will be opting to use Xbox hardware instead.
The PlayStation 5 has been universally panned as a terrible console for competitive play. It overheats and adds extra input delay, making fighting games—especially for high-level competitors—feel sluggish compared to most PC ports.
There have been documented cases at major tournaments like Evo that include USB ports burning and melting cords, rendering fightsticks or leverless controllers unusable. The most egregious case happened at Evo Japan 2025 during the Guilty Gear Strive grand finals, where Ramlethal player RedDitto had to borrow a controller as his USB cable got burnt in the middle of the set. The organizers had to power cycle the console, leading to major downtime.
Then there are the constant issues with poor performance, with major FGC members like Evo champion PunkDaGod consistently complaining about the setups. Back in 2025, he stated: “I spend tons of hours practicing, traveling, spending money to go to these events, and stuff like overheating PS5 controlling the outcome of a set is literally the same feeling as someone spitting on your face.” Many, if not the vast majority of competitors, have shared his feelings throughout the years.
A few major tournaments, like Ultimate Fighting Arena, have experimented with PC setups for their tournaments. Sadly, that isn’t logistically feasible for a lot of organizers due to budgeting reasons and the inherent pains of trying to properly optimize a single PC setup, let alone dozens, to run a major event.
Enter Texas Showdown, a regional tournament held in Houston. The 2027 edition will happen on April 2–4 with an important distinction: the Street Fighter 6 tournament, the largest bracket in the event, will be played on Xbox Series X, finally ditching the subpar PS5.
The Xbox Series X is a much more thought-out console. For one, the heat vent isn’t placed next to the USB ports and is much more efficient at doing its job, giving Microsoft’s console a leg up over Sony’s hardware. This is the key issue: while performance-wise both versions run games like SF6 with similar delay, taking into account that the Xbox’s design allows the console to not overheat as consistently means it will likely avoid constant chugging and the need to power cycle, on top of completely removing overheating USB issues.
The Texas Showdown TOs will be providing controller converters, letting you use peripherals that normally only work on PlayStation consoles on Xbox. According to TO Mr Mad Gear, it doesn’t impact latency whatsoever. He even mentioned that players have told him the Xbox version of SF6 feels as “close as it can” to playing on PC.
Hopefully, Texas Showdown goes smoothly and makes other organizers see the light, leading to PlayStation finally being sidelined in favor of a more consistent console.
And that’s it. Stick with us at Gfinityesports.com: your go-to source for all things fighting games.
