PS5 DualSense reveal coming today — watch it right here
The PS5 DualSense controller is finally getting some hands-on action
Editor's Note: Check out our full breakdown of Geoff Keighley's PS5 DualSense hands-on.
We’ve known what the PS5 controller, the DualSense, will look like for a long time now. Sony revealed the controller out of nowhere in a blog post a few months back, and it was a good way to keep fans engaged while Sony waited to show off the console’s full design. Since then, though, we haven’t had much new information about the DualSense. That will all change today, as we get a deep dive on the controller as part of the online SummerGamesFest.
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Information comes from Geoff Keighley, curator of the SummerGamesFest. For those who haven’t been keeping up with it, SummerGamesFest is sort of a catch-all replacement for E3, since we didn’t have a big, unified, physical gaming expo this year.
So far, SummerGamesFest has been a mélange of indie and mid-budget game announcements, plus some bigger reveals from companies like Sony and Epic Games. (SummerGamesFest was also the first time we saw PS5 gameplay in action, courtesy of Epic Games’ bespoke demo, Lumen in the Land of Nanite.)
Keighley’s tweet is pretty simple:
“This is the #PlayStation5 DualSense Controller,” he writes. “Tomorrow at Noon ET / 9 am PT, it’s time to go hands on.”
This is the #PlayStation5 DualSense Controller. Tomorrow at Noon ET / 9 am PT, it's time to go hands on. Can't wait to tell you about my experience. https://t.co/Hp7WuLrjXk #SummerGameFest pic.twitter.com/hvxTouNrc1July 16, 2020
Attached is a 19-second video of Keighley picking the controller up off of a table. That’s about all there is to it. The DualSense looks like a controller — but we already knew that. Its curvature is a little more backward-facing than I would have anticipated, but that’s not shocking, given the angles on the DualShock 4. Some fans have expressed concern that the DualSense would be uncomfortably large, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, unless Keighley has truly enormous hands.
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So, there you have it. We’ll get a hands-on demo of the DualSense controller a 12 PM ET on July 17 from Keighley himself. Keighley has the right pedigree for the job, as an experienced journalist from G4 and GameTrailers. More recently, he’s hosted The Game Awards and worked behind the scenes at Gamescom, Germany’s biggest gaming expo. If anyone knows his way around a PlayStation controller, it’s him.
The DualSense hasn’t elicited as strong a reaction as the PS5 console itself. While fans bickered (and continue to bicker) endlessly about the PS5’s appearance and color scheme, DualSense commentary has more or less restricted itself to the color scheme, which is a polarizing black-and-white two-tone. On the other hand, PlayStation controllers have always come in a variety of colors, and the DualSense will probably be no exception.
Tom’s Guide will cover the reveal when it happens, so stay tuned for our impressions of what Keighley has to show off. Hopefully, Sony will let other journalists go hands-on with the PS5 and its accessories sooner rather than later.
Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.