PS4’s DualShock 4 light was designed for Project Morpheus

The often unpopular light bar on the DualShock 4 controller was included at the request of the team working on the VR Project Morpheus headset.

While PS4’s recent 1.7 update allowed users for the first time to dim the controller’s in-built light, Sony has doggedly refused requests from users to add the option of turning it off completely.

SCEE’s senior designer Jed Ashforth has told TechRadar, however, that it’s all part of a bigger plan.

"The tracking light – it was our department that said we need that on. It was for tracking for VR," he explained. And when all these things were coming out six months ago and everyone was going ‘it’s reflecting in my TV,’ we were going ‘oh no’ because we couldn’t tell anyone what it was for."

To date the light bar has been used for a handful of PlayStation Camera related functions.