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[IbizaPocholo]

How Sony put 40,000 PlayStation symbols under your fingertips

I’m not sure you understand how many PlayStation symbols Sony snuck in.

www.theverge.com

Part of that is how the amazing DualSense controller’s clever motorized triggers and intensely precise vibrations can recreate the crunching sensation of strutting across a sandy beach or the pitter-patter of rain.

Another part: the 40,000 tiny PlayStation symbols you’ll feel when you pick up the PS5’s new gamepad. As an Easter egg for its fans, the company decided to apply a microtexture to the DualSense controller’s entire lower shell that makes it Sony’s most grippable gamepad yet because of the thousands upon thousands of tiny squares, triangles, circles, and crosses literally at your fingertips.

Sony hasn’t previously spoken about how it did this, how many there are, or how large the symbols actually get, but we have those answers today — including behind-the-scenes photos and details from Sony’s Yujin Morisawa and Takeshi Igarashi, the chief designers behind the PS5 and the DualSense, respectively. (We even borrowed a fancy industrial microscope so you can see how the symbols look up close.)

Perhaps the most striking part, as you’ll see in images above and below: these tiny symbols are stacked on top of each other, jutting out in three dimensions. They’re not a single, evenly spaced layer at all, like the tiny dots you might remember on Sony’s DualShock 4 from 2013. They look random, almost organic — which might be because the entire design was sketched out by hand.

Check the link for more.

 

[6502]

Do these patterns get filled with dead skin over time? (Not touched one).

 

[AllyITA]

Do these patterns get filled with dead skin over time? (Not touched one).

and cheetoes, yes.

 

[bender]

and cheetoes, yes.

And DSP's dead soldiers.

 

[ZywyPL]

That's one hell of an amazing detail, love it.

 

[SJRB]

The texture is also on the inside of the PS5's white "flaps".

Incredible design for sure.

 

[bender]

Ribbed for our pleasure.

 

[The Lunch Legend]

I rubbed my left nipple on my DualSense controller, and I can confirm the texture feels good

And DSP's dead soldiers.

.

 

[Kuranghi]

Time to market a non-corrosive Dualsense cleaning solution.

 

[martino]

Nice detail hard to spot without direct lighting and looking for it

 

[ShirAhava]

Hey if you have to drift might as well drift in style

I like the cut of PS gib "Fuck quality control check out these dope symbols"

 

[Hendrick's]

It's almost like the author has never seen textured plastic before.

Sketched by hand? Yeah sure.

How did they accomplish this? It's a process where the mold is etched by laser, not some giant mystery.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[AgentP]

nm

 

[Diddy X]

40.000 ? How small are they?

 

[01011001]

Do these patterns get filled with dead skin over time? (Not touched one).

yes and they don't even give that much grip tbh. it's just a slightly rougher surface compared to normal plastic.

 

[nikolino840]

and cheetoes, yes.

And smegma

Ok maybe i'm going too far

 

[Aroll]

I’ll take close up pictures, but having bought a PS5 a month or two ago, all I can say is my DualShock controller does not have those symbols on the back. I have done a ton of close of shots with a lumix g9 camera, my phone, and a real magnifying glass. It’s just normal bumps.

which makes me think that Easter egg was for the launch unit batch.

 

[longdi]

I’ll take close up pictures, but having bought a PS5 a month or two ago, all I can say is my DualShock controller does not have those symbols on the back. I have done a ton of close of shots with a lumix g9 camera, my phone, and a real magnifying glass. It’s just normal bumps.

which makes me think that Easter egg was for the launch unit batch.

Interesting, can you take a photo and let us take a look

 

[Gamerguy84]

I’ll take close up pictures, but having bought a PS5 a month or two ago, all I can say is my DualShock controller does not have those symbols on the back. I have done a ton of close of shots with a lumix g9 camera, my phone, and a real magnifying glass. It’s just normal bumps.

which makes me think that Easter egg was for the launch unit batch.

You dont have them on the handles? Mine aren't on the smooth part of the bottom but are on the handles, and of course the console itself.

 

[Spukc]

Controllers get dirty if you look at them

 

[Yoboman]

WOW does the author not realise that games cost $70, Jim Ryan killed my father and Returnal’s main character isn’t sexy?

 

[Raonak]

It's a very cool detail. Sony really struck marketing gold with the symbols. So versitile.

 

[ManaByte]

Ribbed for our pleasure.

 

[prinz_valium]

Noticed the first time you use the controller.
Easteregg

 

[MasterDerico]

There's also a moneyegg: You have to buy a new DualSense after 6 months!