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DualShock 4 symmetrical thumbsticks approved by FPS players, devs

Although Xbox fans will ofen tell you they hate the PlayStation's symmetrical thumbsticks, Sony polled shooter players and developers extensively and was given the nod to continue the trend with the DualShock 4.

Lead engineer Mark Cerny told IGN Sony seriously considered changing up the PlayStation 4's control pad, but stuck with the current alignment after testing extensively with consumers.

“We made and tested a ridiculously broad style of controllers, and we would actually have people play games with them. And the current controller design came out of that," he said.

"We did indeed conclude that the two joysticks on the same level works perfectly well. That did come out of our testing.”

Sony also asked for feedback from developers.

"We sent out prototypes to major FPS creators. We looked at the top-selling titles, if they were people we could talk to, we began sending over a stream of controllers. And we would ask them things like concavity or convexity, or trigger pressure, or trigger location, or accuracy, or the like," Cerny said.

"It was extremely helpful to have the designers of some of the top FPSes on our controller design project."

The DualShock 4 looks a lot like the last few PlayStation controllers, but reports suggest it has been more ergonomically shaped, It has a light bar for motion tracking, a headphone jack, a speaker, a Share button for easy video and image upload, and a capacitative touch pad.

Thanks, Polygon.

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Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

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Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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