Phil Spencer remarked “Sony’s done a nice job with their controller” in a recent appearance on the Kinda Funny Gamescast while speaking with Kinda Funny about the future of Xbox.
Xbox has largely utilized the same shape and utility with controllers in its twenty-year history, outside some minor changes. This was, of course, after changing from the legendary, massive “Duke” controller to the smaller ‘S’ variant, which has continued to define the basic shape and feel of Xbox even today.
PlayStation on the other hand has experimented and changed its controller over the years, with varying degrees of success. (Looking at you, Sixaxis!) It would have been safe to stick with the Dualshock 4 on PS5. It was a popular controller that felt great to use but Sony decided against playing it safe and took a risk that paid off.
The Dualsense controller features adaptive triggers and a slew of other new tricks that are exclusive to their controller, giving the PlayStation 5 a unique bag of tricks before you even get to the console itself. Phil Spencer spoke about Xbox’s future when discussing PlayStation’s controller and even hinted at what could happen in the future.
He went on to say, “We’re definitely thinking about different kinds of devices that can bring more games to more places. There’s probably some work that we’ll do on the controller.”
He later added, “Right now I don’t think there’s anything that’s obvious to me,” which means it may not be happening right away but it’s still telling that Spencer is keeping an eye on the future and the new possibilities introduced by PlayStation and other companies.
Video games continue to grow from new ideas and experimenting with technology, which PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo have all contributed to over the years. Nintendo has changed how and where we play games with the Nintendo Switch. PlayStation has pushed the limits of storytelling with its single-player games and virtual reality. And Xbox has dared to ask the question: what if anything with an Internet connection could be an Xbox?
