Last night on the PlayStation blog Sony showed off an image of the controller for the PlayStation 5, properly identifying it as the “DualSense” Controller. What they showed isn’t a radical departure from the PlayStation 4 controller, but certainly still is different from the controller design PlayStation gamers have been used to for the past 7 years.
The design is a black base with white panels, following generally the same form factor as the PlayStation 4 controller but with more angles and a bit more ergonomic design than its predecessor. The PlayStation button is literally the PlayStation brand logo, which I’ll give is a nice touch, and the share button is now a “create” button, which apparently will invoke a process which will provide more options than just a typical “share this clip to all social media” or whatever share exactly did on the PS4. I couldn’t care less about such a feature, and can’t comprehend why Sony thinks that needs to be a dedicated button on the controller, but that’s another story for another time.
Beyond the rest of the marketing hype they discuss subtle changes to the design which are also for ergonomics (hell, even the eternally pointless touch sensor on the top of the controller is now rounded a bit), but also hype how the light bar has been designed to “give it an extra pop” like that really matters – Yeah, I totally choose my game console based on how the controller glows. Give me a break.
The biggest thing is their touting of haptic feedback with the buttons — this will help make games “more immersive” by giving players a bit of force feedback on button presses. This is similar to, but more subtle than, the nature of controllers vibrating since the introduction of the N64 Rumble Pak and the Dual Shock controllers back in the 90’s, and the Xbox One has had a similar function available with the Left and Right Triggers and small rumble motors in them, which worked to okay effect but most developers didn’t take advantage of.
The thing about these features is that for some people they get very annoying very quickly. Especially some of us older gamers who, let’s face it, our bodies aren’t what they used to be. The vibrations may cause aches and pains. Even then, some younger people I know turn off such features because they just don’t like them, or they want to conserve battery life in the controller. Sure, the options are fun to have, but not everyone truly wants, needs, or can stand to have them, and again, many developers never take advantage of these features, which can lead to something being available, and touted as a benefit to choosing this platform, but is never actually used by most games a person may play — it’s a wasted feature, which means wasted R&D time that could have been spent on something better.
The biggest thing going on here though is the overall look of the controller, and that’s what’s, as always, dividing people. Some love it, some hate it. It’s a two tone beast which I described on Twitter in the following way:
Honestly the thing looks like a design that Microsoft would have rejected in 1996 for some PC gamepad and then Musk found the mockups years later and added his own flair to it…. in the worst of ways.
Many have taken to mocking it already, in pretty hilarious ways in some cases. I can’t say I hate the design, but I don’t like it either. I think quote from Back To The Future: Part 2 really sums it up nicely: That’s like a baby’s toy!
Don’t get me wrong — I’m sure it will be a fine controller, but I just don’t see anything actually special about this. In fact, the only thing I really take away from it is that this is likely a clue to what the actual design of the PlayStation 5 console may be like. Oh yes, I’ve got some ideas, but more on that soon.
In all seriousness, this is, as one would expect, just an evolution of the PlayStation 4 controller with a few new features thrown in — ones I don’t think improve the gameplay experience as much as many would want to think. This leads me to a question I just have to ask: when did gaming controller design stop being about actually playing the games and start being about literally anything else? How does any of this actually help someone play a game? Without some clever usage, it doesn’t, and that’s what really gets at me about controllers these days — it’s like they want to reinvent the wheel, and in the end it’s always a bust. Again, though, that’s another story for another time.
The Sony blog post, if you wish to read it, can be found here: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2020/04/07/introducing-dualsense-the-new-wireless-game-controller-for-playstation-5/
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