Sony has always taken a ‘don’t fix what ain’t broken’ approach when it comes to the controller designs for their PlayStation consoles – with the incoming cycle along with the introduction of their latest PlayStation 5, this is tradition is about to change.
The company has announced a completely new look for their latest gamepad and it’s called the Sony DualSense – it breaks from the DualShock naming convention that’s been present for 20 years.
Image credit: Sony
This is due to Sony’s new approach with the current controller where ‘sense’ is at the forefront of its design – users will use their sense of sound to hear through the speakers on the controller through PS5’s new Tempest 3D AudioTech surround sound feature; engage their sense of touch with a new haptic feedback which replaces the old rumble tech allowing for more accurate vibrations that reflect what happens in the game; the controller will also have adaptive triggers in the L2 and R2 buttons that lets you feel tension in your actions, like when you draw a bow.
Aesthetically, Sony has also made drastic changes with a more squarish body – it looks larger than its predecessors. Sony says in their blogpost that this is due to the rearrangement of the light bars which are now placed on the sides of the touch pad instead of above it – this apparently makes the controller look larger.
Image credit: Sony
The controller shown by Sony here is white with black accents at the bottom and on the shoulder triggers – the first time Sony has made a two-tone PlayStation controller; we can only assume that the black variant will have white accents too. On top of that, the ‘Share’ button is now replaced with a ‘Create’ button, which essentially does the same thing.
With so many changes now made to both the console and controller, it begs the question if the upcoming PlayStation 5 will have a significant price bump over its predecessors – traditionally, launch prices have stayed below RM2,000; but with so many hardware changes this time around, it isn’t likely for the PS5 to break the RM2,000 threshold. Regardless, the console is set to be launched late this year, so we’ll just have to wait till then for the official local pricing.
