Going to order it this weekend…
Just got shipping confirmation on my order. Very excited. Ordered the Fusion, but man I wish the fusion was available in the all white body.
Very excited for this, have been hearing nothing but good things.
So after a week of anticipation the Fusion is here! So here are my impressions of the stick.
I received my friends fusion in the mail today. Being the good friend i am (8-)) i took it upon myself to test the functionality of the stick by hitting training room in AE on the PC, HDR on the 360, and MvC3 on the PS3.
First things first. The Fusion came in perfect condition, i studied the surface to check for any nicks, scrapes, scratches, or any other blemishes but none were present.
Once plugged in the pcb was functioning exactly as it should. Auto synching on the 360, synching with home on PS3 and functioning fine after a button config on the PC version of AE. The 8 main buttons and stick function properly as do all the smaller buttons on the top pcb. All LEDs are functioning properly as well. Some people mentioned having problems with the LEDs in xbox mode but they are working fine on this unit.
Now that we know everything is working as it should we can move onto the actual feel of the joystick.
The Eightarc Fusion has a nice weight to it similar or perhaps a bit heavier than a madcatz TE. It’s got a satisfactory weight for a plastic case joystick and doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy. The surface of the stick has enough room for the entire palm of my right hand to rest while my fingers are on the buttons but none of my wrist. This is almost identical to a TE in that regard, the left hand though, has more room to rest the wrist and feels very comfortable.
The felt bottom is something unique to eightarc sticks and quite honestly im not sure how i feel about it. I never have problems with metal bottom joysticks moving around on my lap really and the felt attracts dust and hair to it like no other material so i’m not very fond of that. On the other hand i can’t say it feels bad having the stick feel like its mounted to your lap, knowing there is no way in hell it’s going to budge even an inch. So i can’t really say i like or dislike this feature but if you have problems with sticks sliding around while you play rest assured the eightarc fusion is going nowhere. This thing has a serious death grip on your lap that not even the hardest 720 churning is going to break.
The last thing i’ll mention might not matter to some people but funny enough the guy i bought this for really cares about this so he will be pleased. That is the sound of the eightarc fusion. The fusion is the quietest stick i have used. It sounds like a strange thing to say as it used the same sanwa buttons every other quality stick uses but the sound of the buttons on the fusion is more of a dull muffled sound than the sharp clack of the buttons on my TE. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the felt bottom or the stick just being more airtight but i know my friend will appreciate this as the super loud button noise produced by the large hollow MDF box he’s using now prevented him from playing while people in his house slept. I think he’s going to be very pleased with the muffled button noise the Fusion produces.
So that’s basically it for my thought of the eightarc fusion. It’s a fantastic joystick and i’m sad that after an afternoon with it i’ll be driving it up the road to its new home. Dealing with eightarc has also been a pleasure. Insanely fast shipping, and great communication. They answered all the questions i had before my order within a day of the e-mails being sent. I can’t wait to deal with them gain once they decide to make the Peal ISO for the 360 (wink,wink, nudge ,nudge)
I’d love to get me one of those if it had a 6-panel version. Are there changeable layouts for this 'stick?
My Fusion came in yesterday. Very classy stick. I’m going to have to agree with everything andrumcneil said about it. I did happen to order the plastic cover for custom art, and at first I was pretty disappointed. It had a bunch of scratches, the button holes looked all weird, and it had a roughed up spot that looked like someone had run their fingernail down a plastic film. Took me a second to realize that I wasn’t wrong in thinking it looked like plastic film - it was a plastic film! And it’s a good thing they put it on both sides because all of those ugly scratches would have gone directly on the surface.
As a side note, I’ve never owned a fight stick before. Is the joystick supposed to rotate at all? I feel like I’m constantly screwing/unscrewing the ball when I do quarter turns. I played on my friends fight stick and I can’t remember his doing that. I texted him to see if his did it, and he said it did but I can’t be certain he understood my question. There doesn’t seem to be a way to prevent it from happening, and as long as it’s not broken in any way, I’m not too bothered by it.
^ you can always open your stick and get a flat head. Stick it in the slot in the bottom of the joystick shaft and tighten up your balltop.
Negative. I tried that. The ball top itself is not moving. It’s the entire shaft.
We don’t have changeable layouts at this time.
The entire shaft is supposed to rotate. Relax 
thats normal for the shaft to be like that.
Yeah it’s fine, you’ll know if it’s coming loose, it’ll feel like it’s coming off in your hand. You have to remember it’s a shaft so it can rotate, otherwise you’d break sticks a lot sooner and easier if it had no rotation… It’s normal. You have a sanwa stick, same one I currently have in my MvC2 stick and it find myself spinning it all the time with no worries.
I wasn’t sure. As long as it is supposed to rotate and it isn’t broken, I’m a happy camper. Everything else is wonderful. Headed over to my friend’s apartment now to test it out on the 360!
No worries, like you said it’s your 1st. Some of us older folks it was common knowledge due the the days of arcades.
I guess my question would have been better understood if I stated it differently
I have the clear panel that you guys sell. Is is best used by sandwiching my custom art between the plexi and the stock art? I guess if that is the case then I would only have to replace the screw hole tabs with the extra ones that the manufacturer supplied?
Hi Wade, the stock art is not a separate piece of paper. The faceplate has art bonded/printed onto the plastic. To use your own art, you would use your art printout and the clear panel only. It should make sense once you disassemble the faceplate.
Yes, the clear panel comes with extra stickers if you mess up the stock stickers during disassembly.
I figured it out. Now Im trying to find a good way to print my art
Thanks for the overwhelming support! The Eightarc Fusion Ebony joystick is currently sold out. We will restock as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we still have 4 other models of joysticks to choose from.
I missed my chance on the fusion 
I hope it get’s restocked very soon!!
Eightarc has the best customer service that I have ever worked with. They answered all my questions on twitter promptly before I ordered so I was very comfortable with ordering from them. I had a slight problem with my Fusion that it would pause every so often on the PS3. They said that they would send out a new Fusion when UPS opens the next business day so I am not without a stick for the next tournament! I love you guys! I highly recommend these guys!
I’m wanting to purchase a Fusion. Are you at all able to give an estimate on how long until the next restock?
Sweet, thanks for that.