Sony enters the high-end custom controller arena with DualSense Edge

As rumored for a long time, Sony has announced details of its plans to enter the game with high-end controllers with the DualSense Edge, an upgraded cousin of the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller with more options and customization features.

If you’ve seen or used Microsoft’s Xbox Elite Series 2 or controllers from SCUF or other companies in that market, you’ll see a lot of familiarity here.

DualSense Edge includes all of the same features found in DualSense, such as haptic feedback, but adds the ability to customize button mapping, joystick sensitivity, trigger travel distance, and dead zones in multiple replaceable control profiles.

The controller comes with several options for joystick caps and rear buttons. This includes either semi-dome or lever shapes for the back buttons, as well as standard, high or low knob caps.

The stick modules can also be replaced to extend the life of the controller, according to Sony, but these replacement stick modules will be sold separately and not as a bundle like keycaps or rear buttons.

A “Dedicated Fn Button”will allow players to switch between preset control configurations, adjust the relative volume of the game and microphone, and access the PS5 controller profile settings menu directly from the controller itself.

The DualSense Edge will ship with a case to store all of these extras, as well as a USB-C cable that locks onto the controller to prevent accidental disconnection.

Sony hasn’t given a release date or price for this controller, but judging by other competing high-end controllers like Microsoft’s Xbox Elite Series 2 or PS5’s SCUF Reflex, it’s unlikely to be cheap. These controllers typically cost between $180 and over $200. Sony’s base PS5 controller, the DualSense, is already quite expensive, with an MSRP of $70.

For the most part, the DualSense Edge seems to be almost the exact opposite of Microsoft’s Xbox Elite Series 2. However, Microsoft’s controller is also putting more emphasis on nicer materials and in-hand feel, and Sony’s announcement didn’t say anything about how the DualSense Edge would (or wouldn’t) differ from the DualSense in that regard.

PlayStation VR2 is getting a release window

Sony has also finally announced a release window for PlayStation VR2, the PlayStation 5-exclusive sequel to the highly successful 2016 PlayStation VR headset for PlayStation 4.

In a tweet and Instagram post, Sony announced that the headset would be “coming out in early 2023″and accompanied social media posts with an image showing the headset and its two controllers, even though we’ve already seen both.

Perhaps most importantly, it will support eye tracking, which enables pitted rendering, a technique that allows VR headsets to focus their power on pixels that are sharpest in the center of your vision while providing natural blur in your peripheral vision..

And it will connect to the PS5 with a single USB-C cable without the need for an external camera – a far cry from the cumbersome wired connections seen in the original PSVR.

Image listing from Sony