Gamescom’s Opening Night Live was full of game announcements, but it also had an unexpected hardware reveal. Sony has officially unveiled its professional controller for the PlayStation 5 called the DualSense Edge and it comes with a lot of sliders and buttons that give it more functionality than the standard pad.
Sony’s post on the PlayStation blog goes into detail in a way that it can’t. The Edge features two back paddles and gives users full control over their button inputs. For example, players can remap buttons and change the dead zone and sensitivity of analog sticks. Triggers can even be tweaked via sliders to trigger faster as well and have a new texture on the tip as well. These changes can be saved to a handful of profiles, allowing users to quickly switch to different settings on the fly, which is useful for those who want specific settings for certain games. The dedicated Fn button also plays a role, allowing users to switch between profiles, adjust volume and access profile settings while in-game.
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The hardware is also a bit different. Aside from some minor cosmetic changes, such as a more angular and black touchpad, black-faced buttons, and a black D-pad, it’s possible to swap out the analog stick caps and analog sticks. There will be standard, convex and concave sticks, which is a standard feature for many professional drivers. However, Edge users can remove the entire stick as it sits in its own module. This is likely to make it easier to combat pole drift, as a drifting pole in this case would not curse the entire bearing. These modules will be sold separately.
It will have all the features that a regular DualSense has – adaptive triggers, a built-in microphone, haptic feedback and more – and also includes a braided USB-C cable and carrying case. The USB cable even has a connector that helps lock the controller into the system, so it’s less likely to slip out.
It’s not clear when it will come out or how much it will cost. Sony said, however, that more details will come later.
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Insider Tom Henderson previously leaked the Edge’s existence back in June and even detailed the stick modules, trigger stops, and rear buttons. He also said the prototype had grips, but they weren’t mentioned here.
This is also Sony’s first official foray into professional controllers. There have been other professional controllers for Sony consoles like the Hex brand of pads, but Sony hasn’t really done the job until now. Xbox has been making its own elite controllers since 2015 and released the Xbox One Elite Controller Series 2 in 2019.