Sony PS5 PlayStation 5 DualSense 1

It’s really exciting what Sony’s doing with the PlayStation 5 at the moment. While the next-gen console is clearly building upon the successful foundations of the PlayStation 4, we’ve been happy to see the platform holder embrace a few more exotic features, like the outrageously fast SSD and Tempest Engine. In addition, it’s great that it’s invested so much time and effort into creating a new controller that will help improve the immersion in next-gen games.

But it’s a shame that it couldn’t go a little bit further. For many years, the manufacturer published patents pertaining to biofeedback, suggesting that it was clearly experimenting with the technology. This unique controller feature was pitched as a sensor capable of measuring heart rate and sweat secretion in order to alter the action unfolding on-screen. Examples touted at the time included lowering the difficulty based on a player’s stress levels, but of course horror games would have a field day with a feature such as this.

Obviously, this would have been expensive and potentially unreliable tech, so its absence is probably for the best. But with rumours regarding a rebooted Silent Hills intensifying, we can’t help but wish that biofeedback had made it into the DualSense controller in the end.