PS5 – DualSense Designer Explains Early Experiments for PS5 Controller

One of the most popular features of the PS5’s DualSense controller is the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Games like Astro’s Playroom and Returnal are some of the best showcases for these features, the haptics making you feel more immersed in their virtual worlds, and the adaptive triggers providing tension when drawing a bow or firing a weapon.

As the first anniversary of the controller draws near, Sony has shared new information with IGN on the creation of the DualSense and how its notables features were always intended in the controller’s final design.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Product Director Toshi Aoki told IGN that it was always part of the product team’s plan to include both haptic feedback and adaptive triggers in the DualSense, noting how they saw haptics being used in mobile technology and decided to create “their own experiments to see how we can bring this into gameplay.”

When creating the first prototype, Aoki says that the product team was using haptics and motion sensors with a demo that featured a metal ball and a plastic ball rolling in a box, which he told us “worked really well.” The next prototype included a DualShock 4 with haptic feedback and found the same demo provided a similar experience.

DualSense Midnight Black, Cosmic Red Unboxing

When the product team shared the prototype with the PlayStation Studio teams, “everyone who experienced it said they wanted it in the next controller,” Aoki tells IGN.

As far as the adaptive triggers go, Aoki says that the L2 and R2 trigger buttons were the most used buttons on previous PlayStation controllers, and the team “wanted to find ways to leverage the buttons to add to the sense of touch.”

During early testing, the product team tested early demos using adaptive triggers with a motion controller in VR and were impressed with the results. “It felt amazing,” Aoki said. “Especially because you can see yourself pulling the triggers in a gun simultaneously with what you were doing with your hands.”

It is no surprise that even the creators of the DualSense are impressed with the controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. The controller has been praised by many that use it. What’s more, the innovations of the DualSense may influence the next Xbox controller.

In our review of the DualSense controller, we gave it a 9, praising its “tactile feedback.” With further praise of the controller featured in our review of the PlayStation 5, calling it one of the most impressive features for the console.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.