Touch screen, built-in move motion controls, removed start & select buttons… and a possible share button.
These are all new features of Sony’s next-gen console’s controller… or so it would appear.
A new leaked photo coming from Destructoid (above) appears to show the controller in the wild, albeit a possible early development build, it still looks pretty legit.
I quite like the design – it’s building off the existing dual shock controller, though a bit wider and chunkier with the glowing strip at the top (what looks like a built-in move receiver).
The touch screen is smaller than I was anticipating though, so I’m wondering what that’ll be used for besides an easily-breakable touch replacement of the start & select buttons.
Fellow Geek Pride writer Kanada commented that it “looked like a cassette player”, and that the “D-Pad is a misspress waiting to happen on beat ’em ups”. To be fair, I agree with him on the D-Pad… It reminds me of the Xbox D-Pad (which was terrible for Street Fighter etc), though not quite as bad. I’d like slightly more elevated buttons in an ideal world.
Looking closely at the pad, below the touch screen & PS button… is a seemingly un-marked black button – is this the rumoured “share” button? Consoles have had this before – OnLive had a share button that would post 10 second video clips to Facebook… I feature I really enjoyed.
What I’m not so chuffed by is the built-in move receiver… The new Xbox is rumoured to have built-in Kinect, and now the PS4 is following suit. I know there’s merit in motion-controlled gaming, but I don’t want games to use it as a crutch the way cinema is using 3D… Because I can’t stand 3D!
Anyway here’s a close up of the controller in full… What do you think?
