Sony recently revealed that the PS4's DualShock controllers would not be compatible with the PS5 console. Instead, the company attempted to push the narrative that their brand new DualSense is necessary for developers to make use of its features.
Albert Penello, former Xbox Senior Director of Console Marketing, went on Twitter to criticize Sony's decision, specifically claiming that "there is nothing about what they are doing that should prevent DS4 from working [on the PS5]."
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In Penello's series of tweets, he specifically shared how skeptical he is of Sony's business practices.
"Something about this feels off. Technology-wise they clearly work." He claims, "same # of buttons. Same layout. Both have haptics, motion, and touch. The one feature only on the Dualsense is the Microphone - and any games *needing* the microphone could use of headset on DS4. There is literally no reason the DS4 would not work for all PS5 games."
Penello is suggesting that Sony is only doing this to sell another controller, as he believes the DualShock 4 should work well enough on the PlayStation 5. He continues, "This seems like a $$ play which is totally Sony's prerogative. What I really hope is that all this leads to a cheaper console. If they really are shooting for $499 or higher, this bill is adding up. I bet DualSense is more expensive than DS4, too. I'm betting $69."
I'm probably going to regret bring this up - but I've been thinking about Sony's decision to only allow DS4 controllers to work on PS5 when playing Back Compat games. I've heard their pitch - we want a new generation to take advantage of new features. Fair enough.August 4, 2020
After the tweetstorm, Penello offered up what he believed to be a more effective solution to what Sony was trying to do. He believes introducing the DualSense to the PS4 could help get players into the ecosystem of the PlayStation 5 a bit early. This way, "you'll get a bunch of new controller sales, you'll have a built-in base of customers ready when they want to buy PS4."
He believes the DualSense should become Sony's "cross-gen" controller.
Penello was also worried about what would happen when a PS4 game gets upgraded to best utilize the PlayStation 5's hardware. "Will customers have to forego title updates for controller compatibility? If they don't, then the argument breaks. If they do this seems very messy."
Xbox has already confirmed that their Xbox One controller would be compatible with Xbox Series X, which is a big reason why Sony is receiving criticism for its decision.
