The PS5's DualSense controller is being compared to the Nintendo DS handheld games console following a new preview event today. As part of the Summer Game Fest, Geoff Keighley offered fans a new look at the PS5 controller and some new information about how the DualSense will work with games.
In a Summer Game Fest stream, Keighley used the PS5's DualSense controller to play Astro's Playroom, the free game that comes installed on every PS5. The controller seems to elevate what would be a typical platformer experience. The controller's adaptive triggers correspond with the tension in the spring attached to Astro's Frog Suit. In a later scene, where a cold stream of ice is blasted at Astro, Keighley can hear that through the DualSense's speakers while the controller's haptic feedback provides a rumble.
The scene just after this though is where things really get exciting and what led some viewers to compare the DualSense controller to the Nintendo DS. Astro's Playroom then shows players a fan and gets them to breath into the controller's built-in microphone in order to get it to spin. The Nintendo DS also had a built-in mic, though it's something that many players felt conscious of using when the console was first released in 2004, out of concern of looking silly.
While some have joked that Sony is "copying" Nintendo by putting this feature in the PS5 controller, others want to know more about how this could be used in games. Some of the mini-games in WarioWare: Touched!, a hugely popular Nintendo DS title, had players blow into the mic or try not to speak loudly as not to wake a sleeping character. The DualSense means that there is now potential for these kinds of games to come to PS5.
Only a few developers have revealed the ways in which they will be using the PS5 controller's features. Counterplay Games, developer of PS5 launch title Godfall, will use the adaptive triggers when drawing a bow and arrow while features like haptic feedback will be used when the player character goes over different surfaces. These are much smaller, novelty-like uses though and not the larger, gameplay-style offerings of Astro's Playroom.
It's unclear whether the PS5 controller features will be used in the long-term or if the novelty will wear off fairly quickly. The microphone on the PS4 controller has been used in games sparingly and that could also happen with the DualSense.