Remember when we talked about the PS4 controller back on the 3rd of January, and suggested it will probably have a touch pad of some sort?
It looks like we weren’t too far off the ball. In fact, we were pretty much spot on. Lucky guess? Coincidence? We’ll let you decide on that one.
“Whilst we don’t think there’ll be a touch screen on the new controller, there might be a touchable surface, populated with the same little icons that the Vita’s rear touch pad is,” we said.
“It could be on the back, in the middle, but it could also be on the front. If it is, this’ll expand the potential control possibilities without forcing an entirely new change of direction.”
“Try it: hold a Dual Shock 3 – your thumbs can just about reach that bit in the middle with the PS button that does nothing of any merit during a game other than to bring up the XMB. Imagine if that area around it was a little square that you could interact with, pulling apart, swiping, twisting. It’s a gearbox on Gran Turismo, a weapon changer on God Of War, a sniper zoom in Killzone.”
Well, it appears that’s exactly the case, at least on the current dev kits.
According to Kotaku, who appear to have a considerable leak of “90 PDFs”, there’s a “capacitive touch pad” exactly like the one on the Vita, that can recognise two-point multi touch. It’s also clickable.
The leak also points to tilt correction, vibration, and a “share” button.
There’s also, separate from this particular leak, the notion of fully integrated Move technology. It’s also possible that PSN accounts can be tied to individual controllers…
For more on what we want to see from the PS4, click here.
chibber
I’m pleased to hear this, the touchpad on the Vita was pleasantly surprising – added a great new dimension to shooting in Fifa and was wonderful on LBP!
YOURMUMANDME
I reckon a touch surface will be under/around the base of the analogue sticks but a re-design will have slightly smoothed over the curvature of it.
Just my thought.
MOVE
Never really understood the hatred for touch controls by many core gamers. Several of the games on Vita (non core I guess) were made with touch controls in mind. Escape Plan, Little Deviants and Smart As springs to mind, and Resistance, a core game, worked very well with these controls in my opinion.
hazelam
i’m not sure how well something like that would on a joypad, it’s not like you have the screen in your hand as well, like the vita, so the rear touchpad, or whatever it’s called, should line up with the front screen making it somewhat intuitive to use.
on a standalone pad there’ll be a disconnect between what you’re seeing on the screen and where your fingers are.
and unless it’s a really tiny touchpad, say the size of the sticker on the bottom, my fingers are going to be activating it by accident a lot.
KeRaSh
Even with a 1:1 translation between the fornt and the back of the Vita it’s easy to miss the spot you tried to touch. I’ve noticed that in Escape Plan. :/
Forrest_01
Yaay – Another reason i won’t be getting a PS4 at launch.
I sorely hope this is just an ‘optional’ thing & not that all games will now have some kind of touch gimmickery to it – There is a reason i really don’t want a Wii U (& it isn’t just because i have a PlayStation!).
xdarkmagician
No matter what they do, or how they try to change the DS3, theres going to be way too many playstation fans who will just want a normal dual shock with rumble controller for Sony to abandon the dual shock. IMO Sony is just wasting their time because the rabbid playstation fanbase will never allow a change, at least that is, until the PS9 plugs directly into our brains. Any kind of touchpad is going to end up like the sixaxis feature- unused.