With the dawn of the next generation of consoles approaching rapidly, both Sony and Microsoft have been giving out information in chunks about their upcoming products. Unlike the previous generation though, Sony has been on the back foot so far, still keeping their cards hidden. All of that changed yesterday though when the PlayStation manufacturer surprised the world with the reveal of the PlayStation 5 controller, the DualSense.
Sporting a rather peculiar look, the two tone controller design is unlike anything we’ve seen from Sony and definitely lingers between the realms of either looking incredibly cool or just straight up bizarre. While Microsoft has gone for a subtle evolution of their previous design with the Xbox Series X, Sony has gone back to the drawing board and has come out with a radical design that no one was really expecting.
The biggest change here is obviously the shape of the controller. As compared to the DualShock 4, the DualSense controller for the PlayStation 5 adopts a much more curved design, similar to what Xbox has been doing with its controllers. In addition to that, the lower handles of the controller have also been extended to make the entire chassis much more ergonomic and easier to hold.
According to Sony, the biggest challenge was figuring out how to make the controller feel smaller than it actually was while also fitting all the new innovative tech inside. Although the DualSense controller adopts a much different form factor, the difference is further multiplied by the uncanny dual tone color scheme.
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However, despite all of these design changes, the most interesting new thing about the PlayStation 5 controller actually lies within its name, the DualSense. With the DualSense, Sony has finally decided to forego the DualShock branding on its previous 4 generations of controllers. So, what drove Sony into altering the name?
Well, the original DualShock controller had its name because of the dual vibration and feedback motor within the controller which was something unheard of at the time. With the DualSense though, Sony is ready to take on the next step towards game controller innovation focusing on a much more subtle and precise feel rather than a big vibration motor.
The DualSense controller for the PlayStation 5, therefore, comes with some very interesting new features like the new haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Haptic feedback sends out subtle controlled vibrations to emulate the sensation of feeling something within the game. According to Sony, haptic feedback “adds a variety of powerful sensations you’ll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud”.
On the other hand, the adaptive triggers will try to simulate the tension of your in-game actions, like drawing a bow to shoot an arrow. Paired together, these features will try to bring the ‘sense of touch’ to video games and hence, the controller is called DualSense.
Even though these DualSense features are incredibly exciting, we need to note that they are not entirely new as we’ve seen haptic feedback previously in the form of Rumble for Nintendo Switch. Furthermore, the adaptive trigger could also end up being very similar to the rumble vibration motor on the triggers for the Xbox One controller.
However, the story does not end there though as the future for DualSense is perhaps even more exciting than we realize. A few months ago, some patents filed by Sony for controller technology surfaced on the internet hinting at what the future holds for the PlayStation controllers.
Those patents, albeit being rather vague, included new innovative features like the ability to sense a player’s heartbeat and also detect sweat, which could have some incredibly exciting implementations within video games.
So, if we keep Sony’s direction and focus towards player sensation and feel in mind, we could actually see these features making their way to the future iterations of the DualSense controller.
Are you excited by the changes that Sony has made with the DualSense or will they prove to be a gimmick in the long run? Let us know down in the comments below!
