DualShock 4 Uses Digital Buttons, Drops Pressure-Sensitive Buttons

Despite being a part of the DualShock controller line since the DualShock 2, Sony has revealed that it is replacing the pressure-sensitive buttons of the controller with digital buttons for the DualShock 4. Pressure-sensitive buttons earlier meant that developers could have a single button performing multiple functions depending on how hard the buttons were pressed.

In an interview with VentureBeat, Sony’s manager of product planning Toshimasa Aoki stated that, “With the DualShock 3, we were able to get analog data, which games didn’t really use. For DualShock 4, we deleted that, and now it’s all digital. The mechanism inside is a little different, and the data that games get is different.”

This comes off other revelations about the controller ahead of the PS4’s release, including dropping the touch-screen and how early designs resembled the Xbox 360 controller in terms of button placement. The DualShock 4 has had a very positive reception thus far though, so we’re sure it’ll fare better when the PS4 launches on November 15th in North America and November 29th in Europe.