Lead PlayStation 4 architect Mark Cerny has revealed that Sony’s DualShock 4 design was aided by feedback from notable developers in the FPS genre.
In an interview with IGN, Cerny disclosed the extensive testing process behind the controller and spoke of the decision to maintain the DualShock’s symmetrical analogue sticks, in contrast to rival gamepads.
“We made and tested a ridiculously broad style of controllers and we would actually have people play games with them,” Cerny said. “…The current controller design came out of that. We did indeed conclude that the two joysticks on the same level works perfectly well. That did come out of our testing.”
Cerny went to explain how testing then branched out to developers.
“We sent out prototypes to major FPS creators. We looked at the top-selling titles, if they were people we could talk to, we began sending over a stream of controllers. And we would ask them things like concavity or convexity, or trigger pressure, or trigger location, or accuracy, or the like…. It was extremely helpful to have the designers of some of the top first person shooters on our controller design project.”
In addition to his design efforts, Cerny is also noted as lead director for upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive Knack, which launches on Sony’s next-gen system at launch–November 15 in North America, and November 29 in Europe.
Will the DualShock 4’s design translate well enough to other genres? Sound off in the comments below.