PlayStation 5 consoles have started to be shipped out to media outlets and content creators, and it's not been long for someone to tear the controller apart to see what's what.
In the video uploaded by YouTuber Austin Evans, he has a tinker with the next generation gizmo, which boasts haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, a built-in microphone, and "signature comfort" in its sleek shape. The haptic feedback offers a new level of immersion, in replicating the actual feeling of different sensations such as driving over tarmac compared to driving over slushy snow. Studios have raved about the adaptive triggers, too, which will react to what's going on in the game. For example, Insomniac Games explained how the dual-barrel shotguns in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will create resistance that is dependent on the power that the player wants.
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"As you pull the trigger, you'll fire from one barrel, and you can feel resistance around halfway down the trigger. Need a bigger blast? Pull the trigger through that resistance point and you'll fire both barrels at the same time," said creative director Marcus Smith. How all of the above is achieved is yet to be officially appraised by Sony, so Evans took matters into his own hands... literally. After applying elbow grease to prise open the panels, he managed to spill the guts of the gadget, but he did break the case in the process.
Oops. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. The DualSense possesses a 1,560mA battery, which would be the easiest component for users to repair off their own backs. Hopefully, Sony will supply some sort of leaflet which shows users how to remove the panels without causing damage to the controller, so that this repair is feasible. Moreover, Evans finds not one, but two microphones inside the controller. One sits at the front, and the other is located on the back, and sounds from the speaker come out of the rows of dots underneath the touchpad.
The rumble motors are nestled inside the handles of the DualSense, and below the triggers are a mechanism that may cushion or determine the level of resistance the player will feel when pressing them in a game. Evan notes that he isn't able to activate that while investigating, so this might not be the purpose of this part. It's a reasonable guess though, if I do say so myself. Most interestingly, he showed that the controller (which states it is only compatible with the PlayStation 5) does work on Microsoft's xCloud cloud gaming service on the Pixel 5.
The PlayStation 5 launches on November 12th in North America and Australasia, and on November 19th for the rest of the world. Though media publications and influencers aren't able to reveal a lot about the console at the moment, Geoff Keighley did weigh the retail box, and it comes in at almost seven kilos. In comparison, that's about equal to a five-month-old baby.
Featured Image Credit: SonyTopics: PS5