Sony DualShock 4 Back Button Accessory - Yes this is real and official

[Brian]

Introducing the DualShock 4 Back Button Attachment, launching January 23: https://t.co/TXugEMR04u pic.twitter.com/NOnxtpMRTG

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) December 17, 2019

 

-Attaches to any DualShock controller
-2 programmable back buttons
-Map to 16 different functions
-OLED Screen (acts as a button)
-Releases January 23rd

-29.99

 

[HGLatinBoy]

Someone should tell Sony they're making a PS5 already. 

[SimpleG]

No issue with me.

[Keyser_Soze]

Trying to make an Elite but it's not as good.

[XxEvil AshxX]

An OLED screen that you'll never look at?

[Xbob42]

19 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

An OLED screen that you'll never look at?

That was literally my first thought. Leave it to Sony to finally try something new rather than steal Nintendo/MS ideas and not figure out something as basic as "screens need to be visible to be functional."

[cusideabelincoln]

Headlines read: "Dualshock 4 gets a bulge."

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

What?

[Bloodporne]

Why the fuck is there a screen you can't actually look at...is this engineering straight-up too elevated and competitive for me? 

 

Also, good to hear I can now pay $100 for a new controller if I bury it in the floor because some fuckhead destroys me in Street Fighter V ten times in a row. 

[stepee]

oh good a useless screen that you can’t see that makes sense on a gamepad that has about the same battery life as the switch

[legend]

Is the OLED screen that confusing? It seems to be just there to show you the mapping selected in which case you would only look at it when changing it. It's not necessary if you can just do it through the console OS, but it's not that weird  

[Ghost_MH]

3 minutes ago, legend said:

Is the OLED screen that confusing? It seems to be just there to show you the mapping selected in which case you would only look at it when changing it. It's not necessary if you can just do it through the console OS, but it's not that weird  

 

They could have also put the screen on the bit of the accessory that you can see from the front. That way, if you forget the current assignment, you can just look at it, on a screen facing you.

[Firewithin]

weird end of generation flex here

[TwinIon]

It really seems like the screen functionality should just be obvious in the OS, making it largely unnecessary. However, my biggest complaint about it would have been that it makes the whole thing too expensive, but at only $30, that doesn't seem to really be the case.

 

I've never used a controller with buttons on the back, and don't think I really need something like this, but I'm sure there's a market for it. I think it's kinda nifty.

[legend]

51 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

They could have also put the screen on the bit of the accessory that you can see from the front. That way, if you forget the current assignment, you can just look at it, on a screen facing you.

 

Plausibly, but it may not have been that simple from an engineering perspective; I don't know. But it doesn't seem like a big deal anyway and I don't get the objections to the effect of "oh but you can't see it what a disaster" because as it is, it's still nicer than having to go through the OS menu to look it up.

[Xbob42]

3 minutes ago, legend said:

 

Plausibly, but it may not have been that simple from an engineering perspective; I don't know. But it doesn't seem like a big deal anyway and I don't get the objections to the effect of "oh but you can't see it what a disaster" because as it is, it's still nicer than having to go through the OS menu to look it up.

I figured they'd add it in the same menu where you change the controller volume and eye-blasting light beam brightness levels, rather than over-engineer another point of failure that eats up more battery life and requires you to flip the controller over because apparently accessing the OS to change something controller related would be too much here, but was fine for every other feature of the controller? I dunno, doesn't add up to me.

[legend]

Just now, Xbob42 said:

I figured they'd add it in the same menu where you change the controller volume and eye-blasting light beam brightness levels, rather than over-engineer another point of failure that eats up more battery life and requires you to flip the controller over because apparently accessing the OS to change something controller related would be too much here, but was fine for every other feature of the controller? I dunno, doesn't add up to me.

 

It doesn't seem particularly necessary to me either. If it eats a lot of the battery I can see your concern for including it for that reason. I'm not sure if that's true or not though. OLEDs can be pretty energy efficient and I doubt this is particularly high res.

[Paperclyp]

I’m for weird controller stuff that lets you customize, but the last two DS I purchased have weird drift issues - it’s not broken sticks it seems more internal than that. 

 

So this comes off as bullshit to me. Make your regular controller work and last more than 2 hours of battery before you start selling me dongles. 

[HardAct]

I just thought that there is perfect spots for buttons on the bottom of the DS4 where it could be programmed through the menu like the speaker volume and the light bar brightness, but this is just not a viable solution to that idea.

[Jason]

On 12/17/2019 at 8:08 AM, XxEvil AshxX said:

An OLED screen that you'll never look at?

 

On 12/17/2019 at 8:27 AM, Xbob42 said:

That was literally my first thought. Leave it to Sony to finally try something new rather than steal Nintendo/MS ideas and not figure out something as basic as "screens need to be visible to be functional."

 

It looks like the screen is used while assigning the buttons. Which presumably requires looking at it. Seems dumb to not just do it in settings on the console though instead of adding a whole display for it. 

[MeatAndPotatoes]

WHERE CAN I PREORDER

[Rodimus]

I say ditch the screen and add two more buttons. all that hardware for two button alone seems pointless.

[eggydoo]

I wonder if this will be compatible with the DS5.   I honestly think this is great compared to buying a $150 "Pro" controller that will just eventually break and now you have to sucker up another $150.  With this if your $30-$40 controller breaks, it's not such a big investment to replace.

I think the screen was just added cause they had the tech laying around from their failed rebirth of the Sony Walkman.

[DarkStar189]

My preorder came from Amazon today. Just got home from work and haven't had time to try it out yet. I did attach it to the controller and it feels really good and solid. I'll be trying it out tonight with Apex Legends and Rocket League. I'm looking forward to being able to jump with one of the back paddles and still be able to keep both thumbs on the sticks for Apex. 

[Bacon]

I was instantly reminded of the SUPER FUCKING SHITTY GAME RUINING REAR TOUCHPAD on the Vita. 

 

[Rodimus]

This doesn't seem like it was not well planned. I think add more than 2 buttons and remove the touch screen.

[eggydoo]

59 minutes ago, Rodimus said:

This doesn't seem like it was not well planned. I think add more than 2 buttons and remove the touch screen.

Just looked up youtube reviews and there is no touch screen.  It's just a display.

To remap you press down on the display until the profile flashes.  Then you press the buttons to scroll through the mapping.

 

For the ones that have purchased this, I am curious on your thoughts.  I have a scuf right now and it was very hard to retrain my muscle memory to take advantage of the rear buttons on competitive play, but I am considering getting one mainly for accessibility reasons as I think it will be easier for my kids to press the back buttons as opposed to the trigger buttons up top due to their smaller hands.

[DarkStar189]

1 hour ago, eggydoo said:

Just looked up youtube reviews and there is no touch screen.  It's just a display.

To remap you press down on the display until the profile flashes.  Then you press the buttons to scroll through the mapping.

 

For the ones that have purchased this, I am curious on your thoughts.  I have a scuf right now and it was very hard to retrain my muscle memory to take advantage of the rear buttons on competitive play, but I am considering getting one mainly for accessibility reasons as I think it will be easier for my kids to press the back buttons as opposed to the trigger buttons up top due to their smaller hands.

It's going to take me a long time to get competitive with these back buttons.  I've used them about 4 hours now between Apex and Rocket League.  They are comfortable as hell and my 7 year old son was able to use them pretty easy last night.  But like you said, muscle memory is a bitch. Much harder than I thought it was going to be.  I think they could be pretty big game changers though with enough practice.

[XxEvil AshxX]

I actually took the back buttons off my Elite. I have a tendancy to squeeze the controller and i kept inadvertently pressing buttons. I thought i could train myself to not do that but i dont play competitively so there really wasnt much motivation.

 

The PS4 controller sits more awkwardly in my hand too, so this attachment just seems like it would complicate things lol.