Long before the PlayStation 5 released, internet sleuths zoomed in on photos of the console and its peripherals, and discovered a nifty little Easter egg: the hardware is covered in tiny PlayStation symbols. It earned a positive response from fans, and following the PS5’s release, many noted that the 40,000 symbols on the DualSense actually aid their grip on the controller. In an interesting new article, The Verge delved into how Sony achieved this.
Looking at the controller under a microscope, the publication revealed that the symbols are not evenly spaced – they’re random because the design was made by hand. According to Senior Art Director Yujin Morisawa, several designs were sketched out by hand, and then applied to prototype controllers. The team continued to test out the designs until they landed on something that looked good and made the DualSense comfortable to hold for lengthy periods of time.
According to Morisawa, Sony physically tested different prototypes because “while it takes a considerable amount of time to create a prototype, the ‘go/no-go’ judgment of a product is determined the moment you see it and touch it.” Sony also spent a considerable amount of time determining the right height for the symbols before settling on two layers: one is about 15 microns tall, and the other is 30 microns tall, according to The Verge’s estimates.
As far as the application of the symbols is concerned, The Verge reported that every single one of the 40,000 symbols was created by molten ABS plastic beads being squeezed into “tiny laser-cut crevices during the standard injection-molding process.” The equipment used is a high-end, multi-axis laser machine that chief designer Takeshi Igarashi said is “hard to come by.”
In case you’re wondering, yes, every single controller has the same exact texture.
[Source: The Verge]
