PS4’s DualShock 4 loses analogue face buttons

The DualShock 4 brings a lot of new features to the PlayStation party, but one bit of functionality has been lost on the way.

VentureBeat reports that the DualShock 3’s face buttons were analogue. This meant they were pressure sensitive, so as well as telling the PS3 if they were being pressed they were also able to tell it how hard they were being pressed.

On DualShock 4, meanwhile, Sony has reverted to digital buttons meaning they are simply ‘on’ or ‘off’, with no scale in between. It’s not a big loss, however – very few games used the pad’s pressure sensitivity features.

The story also contains another interesting detail:

We bet you never knew that the DualShock 3 controller’s face buttons aren’t spaced equally apart: Square and Circle are just a teeny tiny bit farther apart than Triangle to X. No, seriously. Go take a look.”

They’re right!

That’s changed on the DualShock 4, and the face buttons now form a perfect square. This tweak wasn’t just to appease some anal-retentive engineer at Sony. It’s to make a little room… to have more for the touchpad.”