DualShock 4 Prototypes Revealed, Showing The Crazy Controllers PS4 Almost Had

There’s a lot of research and development and a lot of trial and error that goes into designing a video game controller. In fact, in terms of video game hardware, I don’t think there’s anything that goes through more prototyping than controllers. And the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4 is no exception. PlayStation controllers are actually somewhat infamous for their wacky prototype designs, as anyone who has seen the DualShock 2 and 3 prototypes can attest to. That said, we haven’t really seen many of the DualShock 4 prototypes — until now that is.

During GDC last month, the developers behind the critically-acclaimed PlayStation VR exclusive, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, gave a special presentation. And at one point, one of the slides from the presentation featured a shot of a bunch of different DualShock 4 prototypes. And as you would expect, fans are in love with some of the early designs, and appalled by others.

There’s some pretty wild designs in there that, unfortunately, we will never get to hold and test out against the final DualShock 4 design. Some of those controllers look like hand torture, but some of them don’t look bad. It’s pretty easy to tell the crazier designs came early, while all of the controllers that look very similar to the DualShock 4 probably came later when Sony was just tweaking the designed it liked.

Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know there. What controller design would you like to test out the most?

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