The controller for professional players, the new PlayStation controller, has powerfully attracted attention for its price. Actually, for PS5 users it is still the equivalent of the Xbox Elite controller. However, the same does not happen on PC, where said controller loses a large number of its features on PC. Why is the DualSense Edge on PC worse than on PS5?
One of the biggest problems in the PC world is Microsoft’s huge monopoly on game development tools, the reason for this is that they control DirectX and this means a series of APIs designed to communicate the games with the hardware. Of which Direct3D is the most famous and is often used as a synonym, but we have others like input that mark how the controls should behave in the games.
What happens to the DualSense Edge on PC?
We have to start from the basis that SONY with PlayStation has a closed ecosystem where they not only control the hardware and distribution of the games, but also the resources to do it. This means that they don’t use Windows, let alone DirectX, and therefore have their own API. Which is used by game developers for the console and this allows them to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the commandhow are the adaptive triggers and the advanced vibration.
The same thing happens with the DualSense Edge, these functions have been lost in limbo and worst of all, they can’t do anything from PlayStation. The fault of it? Microsoft has it due to the fact that Xinput is a closed API that does not accept third-party improvements or variations. Since we have not seen the exclusive technology of the DualSense (Edge) controllers in the Xbox Series standards that are also used on PC, such technology is banned.
And it’s a shame, although it is true that SONY controllers have the problem of battery life, on PC we usually play close enough to play 90% with the cable connected and the DualSense pros face the gaming experience far outweighs its cons. Honestly, we would like to see the advanced vibration system and adaptive triggers in PC games, of course it is a maneuver by Microsoft to weaken its rival.
Microsoft was about to launch its DualSense
And with that we would have had a third Elite controller with those same functions. Well, for a patent neither more nor less than 2019, long before we knew anything official about the current generation of consoles. The patent talked about the use of triggers with Force Feedback, which is what the DualSense has in combination with what we call haptic vibration. Something that despite the fact that it seems new in the Dual Sense (Edge) was already included in the Joy-Cons of the Nintendo Switch.
So Microsoft could have standardized the use of these technologies on PC, which will become part of a new version of Xinput and thus have a controller with improved capabilities and not a repetition of the previous generation. Yes, with USB-C charging. If so, then both the DualSense and its Edge version would have greater value among computer users.
