Reports and photos point to massive redesign for Sony's next DualShock

Touchpad, light-up top, new analog sticks, and more shown in multiple images.

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[magnusalpha]

I hope that the touchpad in the middle is a display. It would make it easier to pick plays and not have people know what you are doing when playing games like Madden locally with friends.

It's not a display, it's a regular touchpad like the one on the back of the Vita.

 

[IsbellDL]

Can you list a single PS3 game where it added to the experience? Don't say Lair.

Flower.

And yet, both Flower and Flow would have been much easier to control with the option for traditional thumbstick controls. It's one of those things that should be optional.

 

[Ars of Ares]

easier != better

 

[jonabbey]

Apparently, while the touchpad on the controller isn't a display, it does allow the user to press into it to click, as a separate action from just touching it / sliding one's finger along it.

That suggests that the PS4's UI will have some kind of on-screen cursor that can be moved with a finger on the pad before clicking, which is sort of interesting.

It's also supposed to be two-finger multitouch, so if it can detect two fingers clicking as distinct actions on the pad, it'll make for some interesting UI possibilities, without requiring the user to look down at the controller.

It also does look much more comfortable than the old Dual Shock. I'm looking forward to using this.

 

[MyGaffer]

There was a time I was excited for the next generation of consoles. Now, oddly, I have a feeling of apprehension approaching dread.

 

[Carbon Fibre]

I personally am not looking forward to these, locked, controlled consoles but one thing is certain, I could care less for touchy, lighty bs other than fixing the ye' old problem of stupid joysticks loosening over the months and years. Put some HALL sensors there once and for all ffs.

 

[Aten]

Kind of wish people would have responded to my comment instead of only downvoting it :/, 2 other people said the same thing about it not being a major redesign and yet they're at like 45/10 up votes with no downvotes, what gives?

I'm sure the down votes are because you said it was a rip off of the Ouya. If anything the Ouya is a rip off the dual shock design, not the other way around.

To be fair, the whole "touchpad in the middle" thing is very Ouya.

Good point. I wonder if Sony was working on developing this version of the controller before or after the Ouya announcements.

 

[MobiusPizza]

I don't understand why they won't swap the d-pad and joystick on the left. I'm going to hate PS controllers until they do that.

PS controllers came out before Xbox. And by the way, Symmetric PS controllers are in my opinion 10 times better than Xbox ones. On games that need two joysticks, Xbox controllers are a pain to use.

Just compare playing say Ace Combat on the two consoles.

 

[Aten]

Can you list a single PS3 game where it added to the experience? Don't say Lair.

Flower.

And yet, both Flower and Flow would have been much easier to control with the option for traditional thumbstick controls. It's one of those things that should be optional.

I'm all for options, but in these cases, the developers wanted the player to have a specific experience with the game. Flower and Flow are both about an immersive experience. One might argue that the immersion is broken when your shoulders start to hurt from holding the six axis just right for an hour, but perhaps that's part of it for thatgamecompany.

So yes, I think it should be optional, but I also believe in developers making the game they want to make, rather than the game that will be most palatable to the largest number of people. It should be clear for people when they are looking at purchasing a game what type of control scheme's the game supports.

 

[axel000]

Looks like a rip off of the Ouya controller :

http://www.ouya.tv/wp-content/uploads/2 ... slider.jpg

 

[Aten]

Looks like a rip off of the Ouya controller :

http://www.ouya.tv/wp-content/uploads/2 ... slider.jpg

Hmm, maybe they did, but maybe they didn't. The PS4 controller has been rumored to have some sort of touch screen or pad for almost a year now (Ouya was only announced in July last year). The PS vita came out more than a year ago and has a touch pad on the back and a touch screen on the front.

Is it really a rip off if they both come to a similar conclusion at a similar time? The majority of the controller layout is very similar to what they have always had so the Ouya controller is more following in the dual shock foot steps than Sony is ripping them off.

 

[paul5ra]

If that screen isn't 1080p then it's definitely a 'no' from me.

It's not a screen, it's a touchpad.

How do you know it isn't a screen, and how do you know it has touch capabilities?

 

[Sehven]

Can you list a single PS3 game where it added to the experience?

Lai...

Don't say Lair.

... oh. LittleBigPlanet. It was mostly linked to Sackboy's head/hip movements, but level creators could use the sixaxis controls via a controllinator to do whatever they wanted with it. I made a version of that tilt game-I can't think of the name of it: it's the one where you tilt the wooden puzzle thing to try to navigate a little metal ball through a maze-that used the sixaxis controls and it worked really well.

The thing about the sixaxis is that it was a terrible replacement for analog sticks but it worked well enough for other purposes. I actually liked it in Lair (the game was meh, but I liked the controls): the problem that most people seemed to have with the controls was that they expected to steer the dragons as if they were airplanes, when the whole point was that you were supposed to be the rider on the dragon, not the dragon itself, and you needed to steer it with the reins, which the controller simulated reasonably adequately.

 

[Uncompetative]

I wish they would design a controller where you don't have to remove your thumbs from the analog sticks in order to tap the four main buttons. It's annoying when playing a game online and brief button presses like reload or jump can cause loss of control. I'm not sure how this would work but half of your fingers are basically unused just holding the thing.

The Claw!

I wrote to Sony about two years ago with a design that relocated the face buttons underneath. The buttons were recessed, concave and split between the grips. They were operated by ring and little finger tips of both hands. With this approach either of the TWO right-hand side thumbsticks could be operated simultaneously. As with these photos I had concave heads to the primary left and right thumbsticks, but with a PlayStation 'mushroom' style thumbstick taking over the "real-estate" once occupied by the face buttons - the idea being that this would pull the virtual camera out of the head of your avatar in any compass direction facing inwards and thereby provide an easy switch between 1st and 3rd person modes in all games that required this.

It had rumble in place of motion sensing, which I felt made you tense up your shoulders uncomfortably as you played and become more aware of what you were doing with the controller, breaking immersion. There was no integrated display, or touchscreen as these gimmicks drain battery life and shorten the maximum practical length of a session of wireless gameplay.

I got a polite response from them:

Spoiler

Thank you for writing us.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) thanks you for your interest
and support of our products.
Although your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated, SCEA regrets to inform
you that we are unable to
accept any unsolicited ideas for games or products (hardware and
peripherals) at this time. Due to
legal implications, all ideas submitted via email and handwritten
correspondence cannot be accepted.
You may want to voice your ideas through other channels, including, but
not limited to, patent
attorneys, and other professional resources. We apologize for any
inconvenience and wish you the
best of luck.

If you have further questions regarding this message, please refer to
your email case
number:1688963.

Joe
Multimedia CSR
SCEA Consumer Services

They probably get ideas sent to them all the time. I wasn't in a position to set up my own design company and apply for an expensive patent. Whilst these photos indicate some progress on their part, it does seem to be an 'everything including the kitchen sink' affair. Nintendo recognized that motion control was more articulate if the right hand could move independently of the left - hence the Wiimote and Nunchuck combo. Welding the two together as Sony have here is a backward step.

What would have been nice to see isn't even hand-held. LG's Film Pattern Retarder polariod Cinema style 3D glasses could be combined with IR LEDs on the frames to support head-tracking such as TrackIR 5. Many games would be improved by being able to look without turning your avatar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hu8MzhW9p8

 

[Radiosity]

Buttons on the back is a nice idea in theory, but not everyone has the dexterity to use their pinky or ring fingers like that (me included). I'd also rather assume that using ALL your fingers like that would get very tiring on the muscles/ tendons after a while.

Your idea does actually remind me of one Japanese guy who played... Super Robot Wars if I remember correctly, with the pad reversed so he could use his fingers to control the face buttons for maximum control of the mech

 

[neona]

I've always wished they would add buttons on the back. Controllers usually don't have all that many buttons, it'd be quite useful in some games. Plus, if designed well, it could still be comfortable.

 

[alexr]

I noticed a cross-shaped D-pad there, rather than Sony's traditional 4 discrete button style. That alone is a great improvement.

It looks an awful lot like the Vita's D-pad, which is the first D-pad I've ever used that I prefer to Nintendo's. The traditional PlayStation D-pad isn't terrible unlike some (*cough*Xbox*cough*), but this could be a really nice improvement.

 

[openaperture]

Kind of wish people would have responded to my comment instead of only downvoting it :/, 2 other people said the same thing about it not being a major redesign and yet they're at like 45/10 up votes with no downvotes, what gives?

Don't worry about it.

 

[foolishoptimist]

Can you list a single PS3 game where it added to the experience? Don't say Lair.

Flower, and the Kai levels in Heavenly Sword were IMO more fun for the use of tilt than they would have been with standard controls. Sticks may have been more accurate, but I think, a little less fun.

But the best use of tilt/sixaxis to me is actually in Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PSVita. The tilt controls are used to tweak your aim. So you use the sticks to aim as usual, but with a light/quick movement you can adjust/correct your aim before firing. It makes it much easier/quicker to get headshots, particularly for AI that is moving quickly. It's complimentary to the usual control scheme, not dependent on it, but definitely adds something.

Admittedly, not every control scheme innovation in Golden Abyss was successful, but I loved this one innovation heaps. I hope that this becomes widely used in shooters in future.

 

[neona]

But the best use of tilt/sixaxis to me is actually in Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PSVita. The tilt controls are used to tweak your aim. So you use the sticks to aim as usual, but with a light/quick movement you can adjust/correct your aim before firing. It makes it much easier/quicker to get headshots, particularly for AI that is moving quickly. It's complimentary to the usual control scheme, not dependent on it, but definitely adds something.

Admittedly, not every control scheme innovation in Golden Abyss was successful, but I loved this one innovation heaps. I hope that this becomes widely used in shooters in future.

This. So much this. I normally get frustrated aiming with a control stick, but the motion controls to refine aim was great. I really hope they consider trying this in console titles, even if it'd be a bit less intuitive. At least, I hope to see it in future vita titles.

 

[Uncompetative]

I've always wished they would add buttons on the back. Controllers usually don't have all that many buttons, it'd be quite useful in some games. Plus, if designed well, it could still be comfortable.

Well, by sacrificing the second RHS thumbstick you could restore the orthodox PS3 face buttons. Those underneath could be defined to do different things, or provide the same things in a more accessible way. Every game would need to be able to have its control scheme rearranged, much as most PC games do. This would allow L1, L2, L3, R1, R2, R3, Circle, Square, Cross, Triangle, etc. to all be remapped, helping disabled users with hand injuries. You also get the option of PS4 games being able to rely on having an extra four buttons, whilst still being fully backwards compatible.

The reason I went with the second stick idea was to get away from toggling to a 3rd person "chase camera", but instead provide one that you could temporarily hold and orbit your avatar.

Thinking about Radiosity's comment, I think that this second stick idea is a bit unnecessary really, especially when one of the eight buttons could be used to cycle through camera modes.

 

[immanuel_aj]

I wish they would design a controller where you don't have to remove your thumbs from the analog sticks in order to tap the four main buttons. It's annoying when playing a game online and brief button presses like reload or jump can cause loss of control. I'm not sure how this would work but half of your fingers are basically unused just holding the thing.

Just use your index fingers for the face buttons. The middle finger can be on L1/R1 and the ring finger on.... ah hell, I hardly use L2/R2, you can use the middle finger for those as well, as long as you don't have to press L1+L2/R1+R2.

 

[immanuel_aj]

"The central area where the Start and Select buttons used to sit has been replaced in the photos with a large touchpad area, similar to the one on the rear of the Vita."

Oh crap! How am I supposed to enter the Konami code now?!

 

[Apokos]

Can you list a single PS3 game where it added to the experience? Don't say Lair.

Flower.

And yet, both Flower and Flow would have been much easier to control with the option for traditional thumbstick controls. It's one of those things that should be optional.

But I think that the experience was supposed to be on motion...

thank god they didnt that with the Journey Camera controls (you could move her both on motion or right analog).

 

[Apokos]

Looks like a rip off of the Ouya controller :

http://www.ouya.tv/wp-content/uploads/2 ... slider.jpg

which in turn looks like a rip off of any sony controller.

 

[Plastic Dwarf Warlord]

Looking at the pictures, it appears that there might be two unmarked rectangular buttons on either side of the touchpad. Or so it appears to me.