Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

The April 2011 edition of Dengeki Playstation is out in Japan, and a sidebar article in it breaks the news of a new Sony Playstation 3 controller that seems to have remained under the radar until recently. The new controller, says the sidebar, is a joint effort between the two Japanese gaming giants, the first time a developer has worked with Sony directly on a custom controller.

The controller is called the DualShock3 SE (for "Square Enix", not "Special Edition"), and it is expected to list at about 5,500 Yen (currently about $67 US), about the same as a standard DualShock3, shares a lot of physical characteristics with the original PS3 pad. It will, at least for now, be offered only in black, just as the original DualShock3, with the standard general layout and handgrips. After that, though, the pad is departs wildly from the standard controller - the article quotes a Squenix source as saying "we determined that the best way to play games from the modern Final Fantasy series was to streamline the controller so that the most necessary buttons are always front and center." The development team for the new controller realized that most of the action in Final Fantasy games in the last decade results from either pressing the up arrow or tapping X, to either progress through the linear maps or dismiss repetitive dialogue or cutscenes, and as such they made those buttons the focus of the pad.

The team realizes that the new style of the pad is not for everyone, and suggests that gamers choose the pad that works best for them individually. "We know that this isn't what you'll want to use for Gran Turismo [or other games], but we think that our pad will make sense for those who love Final Fantasy games." The controller will be released in Japan concurrently with Final Fantasy Versus XIII; there's no indication yet whether it will come to the West, or if Square Enix are working with Microsoft or even Nintendo on a similar device.

Below is a scan from the issue of Dengeki, as well as a higher-resolution render also released by the magazine.

Source: Dengeki Playstation

Pure elegance, function, and simplicity. Button mashing will be easier than ever.

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Fantastic idea. See, this is actually one of the problems I have with FF13. It's on Xbox and PS3, and your normal XBox and PS3 games? Halo, Call of Duty, Killzone, all that stuff, they use a lot of buttons. So as fights get hectic you keep trying to use useless buttons and it goes wrong. Sure, there's still other problems but at least the bewildering controls are now easy to use.

--------------------

"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

This will be really good for people with fingers as fat as me This must mean that the gameplay will be mostly done with the trigger buttons! I think this could work

--------------------

A fox is cunning
a fox is sleek.
I long to have ones
muzzle on my cheek.

Id hug him and we'd kiss
our love would be true.
And he would wisper
"I love you too"
=^_^= A snippet from a lovely and inspiring poem By Due Swann =^_^=

Nice, I may have to get two of these. Finally we get a decent console controller!

--------------------

'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

That thing looks like an April Fool's joke.

Quote (Aeris-Logan @ 1st April 2011 15:42)

That thing looks like an April Fool's joke.

Lies and slander, this is clearly the only way to play some modern Squeenix masterpieces. It looks like the controller would be good for playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 as well, I can finally play Cable the way he was intended...well, if you forget about that pesky 'up' directional button.

--------------------

"If art doesn't risk upsetting expectations and challenging its audience, it can only stagnate."

This better be an April Fools. Seriously, it's like they WANT to tick of their fanbase.

--------------------

"When we think there's no hope left, we keep looking until we find some!" - Claire Farron

Quote (trismegistus @ 1st April 2011 16:46)

Lies and slander, this is clearly the only way to play some modern Squeenix masterpieces. It looks like the controller would be good for playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 as well, I can finally play Cable the way he was intended...well, if you forget about that pesky 'up' directional button.

Well, it looks like the sticks and at least some of the shoulder buttons stay, so who knows what you might be able to do?

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

Those are the only buttons you need, really. All the other ones are just there for decoration.

--------------------

Praise Be To Helix!