Genki’s Manta Controller is Now Live on Kickstarter With a Screen, Adjustable Sticks & an Onboard Controller OS

Following their five-day Controller Technology Museum experience, Genki has officially pulled back the curtain on Manta, an ambitious new premium controller that is now live on Kickstarter. The campaign starts at $189 for early backers, with a planned retail price of $279.

The controller was designed around its own onboard operating system. MantaOS is controlled through a 2.79-inch color touchscreen built into the pad, allowing players to switch profiles, adjust stick response and dead zones, remap buttons, tweak trigger behavior and fine-tune haptics without opening a companion app on a phone or PC. The system is powered by a Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller, and the controller supports wired USB-C, Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless connections.

There’s plenty going on with the hardware too, including tension-adjustable TMR thumbsticks, analog Pulse Buttons with customizable sensitivity, TriStage Triggers that switch between three different travel modes, and Maglev Haptics using linear magnetic motors. Six extra mappable buttons round out the layout, including a pair of swappable back paddles, plus a dedicated button that instantly switches the pad into keyboard and mouse mode. Manta supports polling rates of up to 8,000Hz wired or 1,000Hz wirelessly, and comes with a replaceable 2,600mAh battery.

Manta will work across Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PC, Mac, Android and iOS, with Genki positioning it as something that goes well beyond the traditional pro controller. After CEO Eddie Tsai teased that controllers were approaching their “iPhone moment,” we can finally see what he meant, and it’s certainly one of the most promising gamepads we’ve seen in a while.

Backers can currently pledge for a super early bird unit at $189, with standard pledges set at $279 once that tier is gone. Manta is launching in a single retro-inspired finish with colored buttons, and Genki’s estimated delivery window is February 2027.

There’s also a limited Founder’s Edition available. Numbered from 1 to 1,000 and comes in an exclusive colorway that won’t be sold again, with a translucent smoked finish. It ships in a special case and packaging, along with a Founder’s mark on the controller itself, and Genki says more details are still to come.