Today, Sony officially revealed PlayStation 5’s controller Dualsense. The PlayStation Blog post reads: “We’ve reached an exciting milestone with PlayStation 5, as we’re starting to ship our new controller in its final design to developers who are implementing its unique features into their games. But first, we wanted everyone in the PlayStation community to get a first look at the DualSense wireless controller, and hear our vision for how the new controller will captivate more of your senses as you interact with the virtual worlds in PS5 games. The features of DualSense, along with PS5’s Tempest 3D Audiotech, will deliver a new feeling of immersion to players.”
While this is the first time anyone has seen the controller, we have gotten a sense of how it looks and what makes it unique from patents that have been filed as well as interviews with Wired when PlayStation 5 was discussed for the first time. Like the patents and leaks have shown, the DualSense is a little bigger than previous PlayStation controllers. The main difference between DualSense and the previous Dualshock controllers that Sony has made is found in its name. After talking with developers, the one thing that everyone agreed on was how “the sense of touch within gameplay, much like audio, hasn’t been a big focus for many games.”
That led to DualSense adopting haptic feedback which was the big thing that was initially discussed and talked about in the Wired interviews. Haptic feedback adds a variety of powerful sensations that players will feel when they play. Adaptive triggers will make it so you can truly feel the tension of something like drawing a bow to shoot an arrow.
Some of the other things that have changed include the angle of the hand triggers and subtle updates to the grips. The design team also looked into making the controller feel smaller than it looks and making sure the controller has strong battery life. DualSense will not have a “share” button as the DualShock 4 has. It has been replaced with a new “create” button that will allow players to create epic gameplay content to share. DualSense also comes with a built-in microphone array which enables players to chat with each other without a headset if they want to. The light bar has also moved to the sides of the touchpad and as you can see from the pictures, DualSense will have a two-tone color scheme as opposed to a single color as with previous Dualshock controllers.
SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan said: “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 the 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. To the PlayStation community, I truly want to thank you for sharing this exciting journey with us as we head toward PS5’s launch into Holiday 2020. We look forward to sharing more information about PS5, including the console design, in the coming months.”