Square Enix and Sony Pair for Special Edition Controller

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