With many details about the mysterious PS5 and its accessories still being largely unknown to fans of Sony at the moment, it came as a big shock for many to see Sony revealing their official final design for the new PS5 Controller, the DualSense, via their official PlayStation Twitter account. The following quotes were stated in a lengthy article via PlayStation’s official blog.
“The features of DualSense, along with PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech, will deliver a feeling of new immersion to players”
Sony continued by addressing the issues of building upon the DualShock 4, whilst keeping a lot of what fans liked about it intact, as well as addressing the lack of true implementation in games to get the best out of the DualShock 4’s touch pad feature. Despite its clear lack of use on the DualShock 4, they have come to a conclusion that the idea will not be scraped, but rather, re-worked and improved upon to give developers for the PS5 a reason to use the feature on the DualSense.
“Based on our discussions with developers, we concluded that the sense of touch within gameplay, much like audio, hasn’t been a big focus for many games.”
As well as working to improve the touchpad for the DualSense, Sony has worked on further immersion features, which was definitely improved when the DualShock 4 was released, however, Sony clearly feel from the below quote that the jump to that next-level of generation in console starts with the immersion of the controller. They have addressed this by implementing the following features such as, haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. The triggers are touted with having a variety of powerful sensations you’ll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud or the tension you feel when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow
They then followed on from that with how they had to approach addressing the additions of new hardware within the controller without making the controller beefy and bulky for the player to hold, and the constant strive for the controller to feel like an extension of the player, almost as if it is part of them rather than them holding it to play. Sony also placed strong emphasis on battery life for the DualSense as its size and features continue to grow.
The controller also innovated in other new areas, evolving their “share button” that was a new feature to the DualShock 4, with it changing to a “Create button”. They state that not all details about this button are available now, but the little bit we do know is that it will allow for players to be able to create their own content around the games they play.
Most excitingly, Sony revealed that the controller will be the first to have a built-in microphone, meaning players can chat online without a headset. However, they do state that if a player is to want to chat online or more precisely, a headset is still a helpful thing too.
Addressing the colour schemes of the controller and the placement of the light-bar of the controller, which have been the talk of the town since the controller’s reveal, with it going completely off-course in terms of what we come to expect from a traditional PlayStation controller.
“As you can see, we went a different direction this time around, and decided on a two-toned design. Additionally, we changed the position of the light bar that will give it an extra pop.”
The impromptu reveal ends on a statement from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO & President, Jim Ryan, who expressed his excitement for the new reveal and future news regarding the PS5.
“DualSense marks a radical departure from our previous controller offerings and captures just how strongly we feel about making a generational leap with PS5. The new controller, along with many innovative features in PS5, will be transformative for games – continuing our mission at PlayStation to push the boundaries of play, now and in the future.
So what are your thoughts on the Duel Sense? We are sure that there will be even more news very soon, but have we gotten a glimpse of the possible two-tone look of the PS5 itself? Keep your eyes here for all the upcoming information, when it releases.
Article by Nathan Brennan
