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Hey Sony, it's Mike.
You won't remember me but we've gone to some of the same parties and chatted on several occasions. We go way back actually; I've played with things you've made, and your QA has played with thing I've made. I've been out of touch for a while, so I thought I'd say hi.
Congratz, I saw you on TV yesterday (well, the internet), and you were showing off some pretty cool stuff. That new controller of yours is sweet, and I look forward to trying it. Seriously, I want to play with it! I hope you're bringing some to GDC. I'll bring my thumbs.
Hey, so these days I hang out and do stuff with Indie game developers. Which reminds me, I've noticed something: When an Indie developer goes to show his console game somewhere, what does he bring with him?
A laptop and an Xbox 360 controller.
It's not Dual Shock or a Wiimote, it's a 360 controller. It doesn't even matter what system their game is coming out for (PS3, PSV), their mobile development machine and demo rig is a computer with an Xbox 360 controller. That has to be at least a little embarassing or disappointing.
Why the 360 controller? Because you can plug it in to your PC and it just works.
Yes, of course the PlayStation 4 will be better than a laptop, but that doesn't matter. If you're bringing a computer somewhere, you can almost always bring a controller too. I can carry all the necessary tools needed to develop and create a console game (the game part at least), anywhere I want to go. This is great for demoing at conferences and trade shows too. Of course deploying right to a PS4 or Vita would be ideal, but plugging a controller in to a PC is a great alternative.
Anyway, I just want to encourage you to do something more this generation with your controllers. Yes, it's going to be a bit more work, but it's not just Indies that would benefit from it. It's a waste to have a dev kit on every artists desk, but you still want everyone on the team to have as authentic an experience as possible. The whole point of the switch to x86-64 is to save you money and to save us money. You're not in this business to profit from devkits.
I could go on about things to make PS4 and Vita better for Indies (expect an earfull from other devs), but you've got a controller that does things other controllers don't. If the new controller is a selling point, then developers NOT taking advantage of it of the controller is a problem. I suppose you can always pressure developers to use it, but that sucks. You don't want to do that.
I wonder, how many people have forgotten the PS3 controller had motion sensors in it?
Thanks for listening,
Mike
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So hey, even if the controllers end up being USB compatible, it doesn't really matter unless the planets align to make it work that way. Which is unlikely for two reasons:
- Sony's got a fetish for proprietary tech, so having it work on non-proprietary hardware will (probably) never cross their minds
- Sony would probably need to make a deal with Microsoft to get it to work, since most gaming PC's run on Windows. Most likely, it will be prohibitively expensive since it would hurt sales of Xbox controllers going towards PC gaming.
The REAL problem is, do games even support gamepads anymore, or do they just support the 360 pad? It's not really Sony's problem, anyone can bluetooth in a Wiimote or PS3 controller into anything, but getting it to emulate a 360 pad is a pain (and MotionInJoy is super sketchy, from what I hear).
The 360 pad standardized PC gamepad controls (and, well, replaced all those awful quality gamepads), which was always the problem, not lack of gamepads.
I always use Wii Classic Controllers, though, they're by far the best controllers for 2d platformer out right now, as long as you don't need analog (still waiting for Wii U Pro Controller key mapping software to actually work right!).
And are there really people who don't like the 360 controller? Cause it sounds like you don't. For me, the only weakness of the 360 controller is the D-Pad - and I think those should be replaced by something else anyway. Otherwise the 360 controller is the best one on the market, I think.
I'm actually surprised that Sony didn't simply replace their D-Pad with a touch pad on the DS4. Would've made more sense to me, cause it'd be easier to reach.
@Brad Works natively in Linux, too. :)
@Axel There are, yes. I detest pretty much everything about how the 360 controller feels. The weight is wrong, the shape is wrong, the battery box is annoying, the buttons are painfully round and have poor travel, the analogue sticks are in the wrong place, and the Dpad is a joke. I respect that people like it, but this isn't a universal thing.
And replacing the Dpad with a touch pad would essentially ruin the controller for me.
They took a couple key things from the X360 - the concave thumbsticks, the triggers that actually have some range, and a bit more bulk. You can't tell from just the pics, but it looks less flimsy than the SIXAXIS.
I guess we'll see what the X720 pad looks like, but I'd love to get my hands on that PS4 controller.
Because of that, I don't play very many PC games anymore because I have to use the annoying Xbox360 controller to control them. I'd really enjoy it if the DS4 could be used on the PC instead.