Alright, so we all saw the new PS5 controller. The default color, in my opinion, is ugly but the overall design of the PS5 controller actually looked really cool. And after seeing the dozen fan colour schemes on the internet, the potential is there. I thought there wouldn’t be anything worth talking about until I heard about the built-in microphone. That one had me concerned.
Look, I don’t want to be that guy, but who’s to say Sony won’t use that feature to eavesdrop on millions of gamers. Gathering information while you play and selling that information to game devs, who will then use that information to figure out what DLC and in-game purchases they’ll sell to you next. Heck, let’s take it a step further! What if they use those microphones to outright ban players who were caught saying some controversial stuff at home. It sounds wild and unrealistic, but take a look at the time we live in and you’ll see it’s not so far-fetched for them to do something like this.
From what PlayStation said:
DualSense also adds a built-in microphone array, which will enable players to easily chat with friends without a headset – ideal for jumping into a quick conversation. But of course, if you are planning to chat for a longer period, it’s good to have that headset handy.
So it kinda sounds like you’ll be able to turn it off, but can you really trust it? We have laptop’s camera covers for a reason, we’ve known for years that our phone has been listening in on us as we talk, to we then see ads for something discussed in private show up. It’s funny at first until we realize we really don’t have any privacy at all. Its something worth thinking about. Say you’re stuck at a game, and you yell “How the hell do I beat this guy”, then a few hours later you get recommended some in-game microtransactions at the click of a button, you’re telling that’s not a bit weird or intrusive?
On a more realistic point, if you have your mic on, won’t the other player hear you spam the shit out of your controller? Maybe they have a to around that but I feel like there’s no way that won’t be somewhat of a problem but we’ll see! Overall, the controller looks cool so at least there’s that, and the haptic features might be awesome if devs make good use of it.
