Sony: Ditching the Dual Shock Design?

Sony has been well known for creating home entertainment devices. One of the most popular devices that they have created is the Playstation (PS 1) gaming console. This was first introduced on December 3, 1994. It sold at around 100 million units after 9 years and 6 months from its initial release. On January 31, 2011, its successor, the PS 2, is the best selling of the series selling at around 160 million units worldwide. PS 3, the latest of the franchise, have sold at around 70 million units as of September 2012.

One of their most memorable trademark is their controller design. They called it Dualshock controller. It has the arrow keys on the left, 4 buttons on the right (triangle, circle, square and x), 4 “shoulder” buttons on the top (r1, r2, l1, l2), a pause and select button on the middle and 2 joysticks below those buttons. For the PS 2, those joysticks, when pressed, act as buttons r3 and l3. For the PS 3, it is now a wireless design and it now has a home button in the middle.

Now for all the fans of the gaming console, they really love the design and feel of the controller that has been used for almost 18 years now.

After a supposed “senior game studio” that was interviewed have said that they would be changing the design of the controller for the next generation of the series. Rather than using buttons, they would be implementing the touchscreen design. Some sources say that they would be implementing a Vita-like design. PSVita is the latest handheld device created by Sony after the success of the PlaystationPortable (PSP). A lot of fans of the console didn’t like the announcement. Some of them even said, in YouTube comments, that the design was perfect and nothing was wrong with it.

Sony should really consider their fan-base comments. A lot is riding on the release of the Playstation 4 release. It would really set the tone for the gaming console wars, especially between Xbox and the Playstation. This redesign might be good or bad for the success of the series.