Sony says PlayStation Now will require a DualShock controller

**LEO** · 01-10-2014

Sony’s big gaming news this week is confirmation that its Gaikai acquisition back in 2011 is turning into an important future business venture in the form of PlayStation Now. Sony hopes that PS Now unlocks PlayStation gaming on just about every platform you can think of, including TVs, mobile devices, and anything “new to market” they care to support in the future.
We’ve already discussed what Sony could charge for access to the service, and how it may even replace console hardware in the future, but Sony has also decided to implement a PS Now requirement that will help bolster sales of PlayStation peripherals in the long term.
If you access PS Now on a PlayStation or PS Vita, you have the necessary controller or controls available to play games with. But what about on a TV or tablet? Touchscreen controls are problematic, as are gestures, so Sony has decided to bypass the control issue completely by requiring a DualShock controller be used with PS Now.
That may sound like Sony cashing in by requiring you purchase an expensive games controller, but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense for gamers, too. If you are offering PSOne, PS2, PS3, and PSP games through the service, you need all the controls the original games had available to play them properly. Requiring a DualShock means no tweaking control mappings and offering the best (as the developer intended) experience by default.
It seems most likely that the DualShock 3 will become the controller of choice for PS Now. It’s also likely when buying a Bravia TV it will come bundled with one instead of those 3D specs you see thrown in right now. PS Now is more lucrative a proposition for Sony than 3D, so offering a controller is in the company’s interests. We also can’t forget there’s more than 80 million PS3s out there already, meaning a high percentage of gamers already have access to the required controller.