Sony has been drip feeding us information about the PlayStation 5 and its respective controller for a long while now. While they're yet to reveal the console itself; they have finally unveiled the official PlayStation 5 controller. Gone are the days of DualShock, this new controller is called DualSense.
Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said the following about the PlayStation 5's innovative controller (via PlayStation Blog):
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 in Holiday 2020.
Immediately upon seeing the controller, you're struck with the unique two-tone design. The change in appearance is likely to separate it from previous DualShock controllers. What this could mean for the design of the PlayStation 5 console itself is certainly intriguing — perhaps it's white!
The Share button essentially returns only this time it's called the Create button. Sony hasn't divulged any information about the Create button beyond noting that it's considered an expansion on the Share button. Speculate on that what you will. Interestingly, Sony seems to have done away with the well established colours for the symbol buttons.
The controller features a built-in microphone meaning that a headset isn't an absolute necessity. Any and everyone will be able to join in on a voice chat and communicate to their teammates. However, it's said that players will still want a headset for prolonged periods of social gaming.
Like the Share button, the light bar and touch pad are back. However, this time around the light bar isn't placed atop the controller but rather on either side of the touch pad. It's an interesting change that will allow the user of the controller to more easily tell what colour the light is. It's said that the DualSense will maintain a strong, rechargeable battery.
The controller supports adaptive triggers which means that developers will be able to program in tangible resistance. For instance, players will more vividly be able to feel the tension of pulling back a bow string or driving a car on rough terrain or up an incline. What's more, the triggers themselves have been smoothed out a bit.
Senior Vice President Hideaki Nishino explained the controller's triggers as such:
After thoughtful consideration, we decided to keep much of what gamers love about DualShock 4 intact, while also adding new functionality and refining the design. 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. We had a great opportunity with PS5 to innovate by offering game creators the ability to explore how they can heighten that feeling of immersion through our new controller. This is why we adopted haptic feedback, which adds a variety of powerful sensations you’ll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud. We also incorporated adaptive triggers into the L2 and R2 buttons of DualSense so you can truly feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow.
Nishino further went on, stating that Sony made a concerted effort in order to keep the controller relatively light — despite all the new features. "We also took thoughtful consideration into ways to maintain a strong battery life for DualSense’s rechargeable battery, and to lessen the weight of the controller as much as possible as new features were added."
Finally, Nishino explained that the controller has been tested with many different hand sizes as well as made clear their goal with the DualSense — that being immersion like never before.
In all, we went through several concepts and hundreds of mockups over the last few years before we settled on this final design. DualSense has been tested by a wide range of gamers with a variety of hand sizes, in order for us to achieve the comfort level we wanted, with great ergonomics. Our goal with DualSense is to give gamers the feeling of being transported into the game world as soon as they open the box. We want gamers to feel like the controller is an extension of themselves when they’re playing – so much so that they forget that it’s even in their hands!
We look forward to finding out more about the DualSense controller as well as the PlayStation 5 itself. Be sure to stay tuned to Gamefragger for updates on Sony's next-generation console.