PS5 Has Been ‘Special’ Thanks to SSD, DualSense Features Rather Than Visuals

So says Astro Bot lead developer

by Liam Croft 4:30pm

Video game visuals have very comfortably hit the point of diminishing returns, making the traditional jump from the PS4 to a PS5 less obvious.

To combat this, Sony invested in a meaningful SSD and DualSense controller features as differentiators, and the Team Asobi studio director Nicolas Doucet believes these are the kinds of things that make Sony’s current console “special”.

Speaking to The Game Business, the Astro’s Playroom and Astro Bot lead touches on how, to the “untrained eye”, it can be difficult to notice the difference between the visuals of a late-gen PS4 title and a PS5 launch game. Therefore, to make its experiences feel different to what was on offer last generation, Team Asobi invested in those new features.

As it played around with prototypes for the DualSense controller, it “tried to understand what could be different about having this kind of trigger, so you can simulate pulling something, or cracking something, or crushing something… We tested all of that”.

The experiments resulted in two of the best use cases of the PS5 pad this generation, and this is where the generational leap is probably best felt, says Doucet. “There are some leaps, but they’re maybe less obvious than when we went to HD graphics. That’s something that you can just stare at the screen for a few seconds and understand. With the controller, you have to get it in your hands and get a feel for it.”

He continues: “I do think the PS5, between the DualSense and the SSD, really brought something special. With the SSD… I’m thinking of things like the Souls games, where you die a lot. And when you die, you used to have to wait a long time before you get a second try. With the SSD, that becomes really, really fast. So, in terms of just the pleasure of play, that’s really increased.”

Special, unique features such as these are what Sony will need to consider even more as it works towards an eventual PS6. Rumoured to be coming in 2027, the graphical leap between a PS5 and the next generation will be even less than that of the PS4 to the PS5. One way Sony is speculated to be justifying its next piece of hardware is through a handheld capable of playing select games. The new Power Saving mode on PS5 seems to be building up to that feature.

[source thegamebusiness.com]