New PS5 Controller Features and Details Revealed

Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment officially revealed the PS5 controller, which will be called the DualSense. Like the PS4's DualShock 4, it's wireless, but as you can see, it boats a new naming convention, which is likely due to the fact it makes considerable changes to the PlayStation controller design. According to Sony, the team that designed the controller noted that many loved the design of the DualShock 4, which is why the DualSense keeps much of its design intact. However, the controller's design has been refined and injected with new functionality.

"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," writes Hideaki Nishino
Senior Vice President, Platform Planning & Management at Sony. "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 notes that once the team decided to add adaptive triggers to the controller, they had to make some design tweaks to the controller body itself in order for it not to be too bulky. As a result, the angle of the hand triggers have been tweaked, and some subtle updates to the grip have been made.

"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," added Nishino.

As you can see, another change made involves the "Share" button, which has been replaced with a "Create" button. Unfortunately, for now, Sony isn't disclosing any more information on the new Create button, other than noting it will be an expansion of the Share button.

The DualSense will also add a built-in microphone array, which will allow players to easily chat with friends without a headset. According to Sony, players will still want headsets for prolonged periods of social gaming.

The colors have also changed. Traditionally, the PlayStation controllers have boast one single color. This time there's going to be a two-toned design. Sony doesn't say why it's making this change, but it's likely to set the DualSense apart from the DualShock in terms of visual aesthetic. Meanwhile, with this has come a change to the position of the light bar, which will "give it an extra pop." On the PS4 controller, it sat at the top of the controller. Now it will be set at each side of the touch pad.

"In all, we went through several concepts and hundreds of mockups over the last few years before we settled on this final design," said Nishino. "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!

The PlayStation 5 is set to release sometime this holiday season.