You know what, this might be an extremely hot take right now, given how the announcement of the PS5 and all those rad games for it kinda took the world by storm. Look, I’ll be the first to say that I’m as hype for a new Ratchet and Clank and Spider-Man game as the next guy, but beyond software the services around the PlayStation 5 are more frustrating than anything else. As an example, while Microsoft is out there toting how the Xbox Series X will offer backwards compatibility of four generations of games, Sony took it upon themselves to cherry pick favourites that will be playable on the PS5 at launch with no word yet on even older generations. Now, the announcement that the DualShock 4 will work with the PS5 but, in typical Sony fashion, there are some irritating caveats to the whole thing.
So yes, you did read that correctly. The DualShock 4, the controller designed and released for the PlayStation 4 will in fact be usable with the PS5. Which is great news! Hooray! Now users will have plenty of spare controllers to use when throwing a party, or playing with a loved one or…wait, sorry. Gimme a second, I’m reading further along this email that was sent out.
Oh, you’ll only be able to use the DualShock 4 with the PS5…if you’re playing PlayStation 4 games. Seriously?
Now sure, Sony could spin this into a case for PlayStation 5 games needing the newer Dual Sense controller due to all the exclusive features of the new controller those titles will no doubt use. Yet it was the same story for the DualShock 4 and do you have any idea how many games actually made clever use of the touch pad and built-in speaker? That’s right, approximately four and two of them did it badly.
Of course, it only gets better when you discover that the DualShock 4 will only work “with supported PS4 games”. So it’s not even all of them; why are we even bothering at this point?
Of course, the compatibility only becomes more cloudy the more you think about it. Will the DualShock 4 continue to work with PS4 titles that are upgraded onto the PS5? Does the upgrade break the controller support, basically requiring people to never update software?
It’s a real mess of an announcement that was no doubt meant to be quite important for Sony. It’s stuff like this that just deflates my excitement for Sony’s next-generation. How is a company able to do so many things correctly and yet still fumble such basic stuff like this so easily?
(Source: The Verge)
