The latest drip has dropped from Sony, as the company drip-feeds us details about the PlayStation 5. This time we’ve finally been treated to a look at the controller, and the design marks a surprising departure from the last four generations.
The controller design has gone largely unchanged for PlayStations 1 through 4, ever since Sony stuck a pair of thumbsticks on the original DualShock. Sure, there’s been a Share button added here and a touchpad there, but the same basic shape and layout have stayed steady. But this time, the company is shaking up the formula a bit more. The new controller is a shapely, thicker, two-tone model that looks, dare we say it, decidedly more Xbox-like.
It’s not even called a DualShock anymore – Sony dubs it the DualSense. The new name no doubt comes from the haptic feedback system Sony announced back in October. Developers can program two haptic motors in the controller to vibrate in various patterns to simulate different sensations, such as sloshing through mud or crashing a car into a wall.
The DualSense also has a built-in microphone, so players can chat without plugging one in. It will probably do in a pinch, but Sony says that for longer sessions you’d probably want to use a better one anyway. Still, it’s nice to have the option.
There are a few other minor changes too. The Share button is now called Create, but what exactly that means is something Sony is saving for a future info drip. The light bar, which used to sit on top of the controller and go largely unnoticed, has now moved to the sides of the touchpad. And the PS button, which brings up the home menu, is now in the shape of the PlayStation logo.
Sony also says that the DualSense is ergonomic for a range of hand sizes, isn’t too heavy and has a long battery life, but we’ll reserve judgement on all of that for when we finally get our hands on it.
Given the surprising changes in the controller, we’re now even more curious to see what the console itself looks like. We’ll no doubt get a peek at that, as well as what games we’ll be playing on this thing, in the months leading up to the PlayStation 5’s release in holiday 2020.
Source: PlayStation blog