Sony wanted to use an asymmetrical off-set layout but the old system was still popular

Sep 20, 2013 13:16 GMT  ·  By

Sony has revealed a few interesting details about the DualShock 4, the new controller that will debut alongside the PlayStation 4 next-gen console, and how the symmetrical analog sticks were praised by both players and game developers.

The PlayStation 4 has quite a few great aspects but one of its most important ones is the DualShock 4 controller, which features quite a few improvements over the PlayStation 3's DualShock 3, from the touchpad, to the redesigned triggers or the analog sticks that have a different shape.

One aspect of the controller that stays the same, however, is the fact that it has symmetrical (parallel) analog sticks, as opposed to the asymmetrical (off-set) sticks found on the controllers of the Xbox 360 or Xbox One.

According to PlayStation 4 Lead Architect Mark Cerny, Sony wanted to adopt the asymmetrical layout but, after thorough testing with both regular players and game developers, the parallel ones were the most popular.

"We made and tested a ridiculously broad style of controllers," Cerny told IGN, "and we would actually have people play games with them. And the current controller design came out of that. We did indeed conclude that the two joysticks on the same level works perfectly well. That did come out of our testing."

What's more, developers of first-person shooters also praised the new controller and wanted Sony to stick with the symmetrical layout.

"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."

Sony emphasized a few months ago that its DualShock 4 was the result of lots of feedback from developers and hasn't gotten one piece of negative feedback ever since its reveal.