SCE Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida recently spoke to EDGE about the next-gen PlayStation 4 console. Among many things, he also spoke about the new DualShock 4 and its LED bar. As most noted, it functioned a lot like the PS Move – does this mean Sony will be implementing Move functionality into the controller?
Yoshida responded that, “The light-bar doesn’t require the camera to function. It’s just a different way of identifying the player. In terms of using the LED [as in the Dualshock 3, with] numbers like 1, 2, 3 and 4, it looked a bit odd. The SCEI people wanted some smarter way of doing it, and the use of a full-colour LED came up.
“And of course, as Rich’s teams pointed out, other than the depth that required the use of PS Move, identifying the precise 2D location of the player can be [done] by camera, if we put the LED bar on the controller.
“So it has a dual – or it could be a triple – role because game designers could use it for some effect. Like when [players are] losing HP, the colour could change from green to red. Like in the Killzone demo, if you were watching Steven playing, [that game] has that function already.
“People were watching the main screen, but Steven was facing the audience, showing how the light bar colour changes as he was hit by the enemy; as he lost hit points the colour was changing from green to red. And when he used the health replenishment, it went back to green.”
As of now, the PlayStation 4 is due to release during the Holiday season.