FF:Enhanced_Reality
Member
I've been thinking about this for a while now. The iconic × ○ △ □ of PlayStation control pads is synonymous with the design aesthetic and the DNA of PlayStation, I couldn't imagine a controller where this was never the case. The PlayStation controller, in my experience, whether you find the controller comfortable or not, has pretty much etched and inscribed into my understanding and sentience when gaming, that these buttons are consistent and uniform.
What I mean by that, is no matter what game I play, when the system tells me a button prompt for an input, I know that X will always be in the same place. □ for □, △ for △ etc. I can adapt quickly to any new game because the controller layout and buttons are virtually memorised and second nature to me.
While the PlayStation console has seen several changed to the PlayStation controller since it's inception, these changes have been gradual and never radical. Though I believe the Dual Shock 4 is vastly under utilised and that developers could massively benefit a little more from use of the light pad, the tracking pad and the microphone. Motion control potentially but the huge opportunity missed is the tracking pad.
However, other companies just do not seem to be great at innovating when it comes to controllers. Let me explain why I feel this way.
No other company has a controller that is as universally recognised for familiarity and it's facial layout and design. For years, companies have persisted with A, B, Y and X and this is really fucking annoying when X is at three totally different places from the Dual Shock 4, to the XBOX One and the Nintendo Switch. I mean look at this.
An X button in four completely different controllers and yet the only consistent ones are the Dual Shock and the XBOX Controller.
Nintendo have had many different controllers in the past but their designs and buttons have varied so much. The trident controller of the Nintendo 64 was illogical and impractical with 2 d-pads, a single analog stick and three(?) pressable buttons. The PlayStation controller was very much an evolution of the SNES controller, I won't even try and defend that it was heavily inspired by that. The addition of extra shoulder buttons and paddles to hold on to changed a lot. The dual analog design was one of the earliest and has become the status quo of modern controllers and that was a Sony design. In point of fact, one of the first games I played that used the left stick to control the movement and the right stick to control the camera was Alien Resurrection (2000.) But even the GameCube controller was difficult to adapt to. Odd numbers of shoulder buttons that were not symmetrical. The face buttons were very poorly designed, (X in a different place once again) and the analog sticks were not great for long periods of play. I ended up putting blu tack on the right stick as it got slippery fast when the sweat off my hands during game play sessions would get onto it. The Wii mote in a sense was an excellent feat of design, being comfortable and unique enough that you really could get used to, though it wasn't very practical outside of motion control games, the major flaw here was the lack of an indistinguishable and recognisable input scheme. Plus and minus buttons don't really do it for me. Plus and Minus, A, B, C, Z as well as 1 and 2. There's just too much going on there. The Switch is a welcome return to form for me, with the SR and SL buttons tucked away but a familiar feel. Just a poor form factor and once again, another A, B, X, Y to get used too.
SEGA also are guilty of less than ideal designs. Whilst the Mega Drive controller was one I had a long period of time to get used too, I never liked the three button input and the SEGA Saturn launch controller was disgusting. Six face buttons, a really poor D pad as well as being genuinely uncomfortable to hold and no select button felt a bit behind by then. However, whilst incredibly flawed, the DreamCast controller building upon the Saturn 3D Controller was a great design, lacking only in a second shoulder button both left and right as well as a second analog stick. Honestly with these changes and dropping the letters on the face buttons for just coloured buttons, it would have made a huge difference to me and been a lot easier to adapt to and use.
The OUYA controller is another poor design for face buttons, I get that they used their name on the control pad, but surely OUYA should have been O, U, Y, A top to bottom and not in the reverse?
For all people criticise Sony for not making drastic changes to the control pad, you can see why they have chosen not to do so. It would be so difficult to get to grips with a different design that the real opportunity now for Sony is paddles on the rear, a new form factor etc.
But surely, when considering it properly. For all the third party companies making controllers for consoles, PC, mobile devices etc. They're all suffering from the same fatigue that creates controllers that are a carbon copy of a carbon copy. If you've read my post properly and appreciated that these are my opinions about comfort and design etc. Surely you can still agree that we just aren't seeing a real development in controllers designed for gaming and perhaps gamer's who always say that a revised controller is an opportunity for Sony would accept that consistency has actually been ideal for Sony. Hell, the boomerang controller went down a treat didn't it?
I think some real creativity and innovation like what Microsoft is doing with the next XBOX controller is necessary, customisable controllers may be the future but without such a high cost of entry.
What I mean by that, is no matter what game I play, when the system tells me a button prompt for an input, I know that X will always be in the same place. □ for □, △ for △ etc. I can adapt quickly to any new game because the controller layout and buttons are virtually memorised and second nature to me.
While the PlayStation console has seen several changed to the PlayStation controller since it's inception, these changes have been gradual and never radical. Though I believe the Dual Shock 4 is vastly under utilised and that developers could massively benefit a little more from use of the light pad, the tracking pad and the microphone. Motion control potentially but the huge opportunity missed is the tracking pad.
However, other companies just do not seem to be great at innovating when it comes to controllers. Let me explain why I feel this way.
No other company has a controller that is as universally recognised for familiarity and it's facial layout and design. For years, companies have persisted with A, B, Y and X and this is really fucking annoying when X is at three totally different places from the Dual Shock 4, to the XBOX One and the Nintendo Switch. I mean look at this.
An X button in four completely different controllers and yet the only consistent ones are the Dual Shock and the XBOX Controller.
Nintendo have had many different controllers in the past but their designs and buttons have varied so much. The trident controller of the Nintendo 64 was illogical and impractical with 2 d-pads, a single analog stick and three(?) pressable buttons. The PlayStation controller was very much an evolution of the SNES controller, I won't even try and defend that it was heavily inspired by that. The addition of extra shoulder buttons and paddles to hold on to changed a lot. The dual analog design was one of the earliest and has become the status quo of modern controllers and that was a Sony design. In point of fact, one of the first games I played that used the left stick to control the movement and the right stick to control the camera was Alien Resurrection (2000.) But even the GameCube controller was difficult to adapt to. Odd numbers of shoulder buttons that were not symmetrical. The face buttons were very poorly designed, (X in a different place once again) and the analog sticks were not great for long periods of play. I ended up putting blu tack on the right stick as it got slippery fast when the sweat off my hands during game play sessions would get onto it. The Wii mote in a sense was an excellent feat of design, being comfortable and unique enough that you really could get used to, though it wasn't very practical outside of motion control games, the major flaw here was the lack of an indistinguishable and recognisable input scheme. Plus and minus buttons don't really do it for me. Plus and Minus, A, B, C, Z as well as 1 and 2. There's just too much going on there. The Switch is a welcome return to form for me, with the SR and SL buttons tucked away but a familiar feel. Just a poor form factor and once again, another A, B, X, Y to get used too.
SEGA also are guilty of less than ideal designs. Whilst the Mega Drive controller was one I had a long period of time to get used too, I never liked the three button input and the SEGA Saturn launch controller was disgusting. Six face buttons, a really poor D pad as well as being genuinely uncomfortable to hold and no select button felt a bit behind by then. However, whilst incredibly flawed, the DreamCast controller building upon the Saturn 3D Controller was a great design, lacking only in a second shoulder button both left and right as well as a second analog stick. Honestly with these changes and dropping the letters on the face buttons for just coloured buttons, it would have made a huge difference to me and been a lot easier to adapt to and use.
The OUYA controller is another poor design for face buttons, I get that they used their name on the control pad, but surely OUYA should have been O, U, Y, A top to bottom and not in the reverse?
For all people criticise Sony for not making drastic changes to the control pad, you can see why they have chosen not to do so. It would be so difficult to get to grips with a different design that the real opportunity now for Sony is paddles on the rear, a new form factor etc.
But surely, when considering it properly. For all the third party companies making controllers for consoles, PC, mobile devices etc. They're all suffering from the same fatigue that creates controllers that are a carbon copy of a carbon copy. If you've read my post properly and appreciated that these are my opinions about comfort and design etc. Surely you can still agree that we just aren't seeing a real development in controllers designed for gaming and perhaps gamer's who always say that a revised controller is an opportunity for Sony would accept that consistency has actually been ideal for Sony. Hell, the boomerang controller went down a treat didn't it?
I think some real creativity and innovation like what Microsoft is doing with the next XBOX controller is necessary, customisable controllers may be the future but without such a high cost of entry.
