PlayStation has invariably made a big announcement related to placing orders today for the limited edition Astro Bot Joyful DualSense controller. Honestly, it does look cool.?? With its vibrant blue and yellow theme, the adorable Astro face pays tribute to the touchpad. It is indeed one of sort recently released, not that really interesting designs were short supply-and Sony has really been shining the last few years in really cool special edition DualSense controllers.
Things had suddenly turned messy on Twitter through several replies the minute the announcement went out. Within minutes. The very first few replies-and their discussion about the controller itself: one pretty definite player wondered if the eyes would move (that would be sick-if they did, but no) while another was countering that they should do a black-and-blue combo because white controllers get dirty too fast (fair point); and then here came the third, already impatient for DualSense designs inspired by Hollow Knight. That actually sounds pretty cool: a controller with the Hollow Knight logo?? Count me in.
Then things started going downhill. There were tons of replies drudging up some developer from Caravan SandWitch and politics?? So apparently there’s some kerfuffle as developers are celebrating an assassination?? Um, how in the world is that related to a cute Astro Bot controller announcement?? This is nuts-how these Twitter threads always go off the rails. People started tagging PlayStation, like “hey your affiliates are celebrating assassinations” and I’m like, bro, they’re just trying to sell a controller here.
I was holding my breath for those “fix the drift” comments to appear. Every time PlayStation announces a controller, someone just has to mention stick drift. It’s practically laws of the land. Someone even says, “sticky drifting included… special feature,” which, if weren’t true, would be hilarious sarcastic commentary. Since the controllers are expensive, I completely understand why people just start losing their cool when they start developing technical issues.
The greatest irony was that this thread had a separate conversation about game sales totally unrelated to the controller?? People then went off arguing about whether PlayStation exclusives sell well on PC, mentioning Sackboy and Ratchet & Clank numbers. Like we’re talking about a colorful robot controller here, not sales charts. A little too weird sometimes, really.
Back to the news- The Astro Bot controller really is a looker. It is ready for game promotion of the soon-to-be-released Astro Bot, which, from all shown to us, looks absolutely tremendous. The controller is meant to exude the game’s bright and bubbly vibes: bright colors, cute Astro face, and full function from your standard DualSense – haptic feedback, adaptive trigger, and every bit.
Pre-orders are already available on PlayStation’s website, and these precious ones usually vanish like morning dew. In price, they are right there in the tier of the premium ones-those running for about $75 or so?? Yeah, not cheap, but for collectors and Astro Bot fans, this might just be too worthy a project to let go. The standard DualSense itself, feature-wise, is by far one of the best made ever; a special edition is just the icing on the cake with quite an interesting design.
It’s kind of bizarre to be putting this one out before the game is given the shelves. Usually, these special-edition controllers release right alongside the game, so maybe the rationale behind this is to build early hype. Well done; get everyone talking about the looks even before they hit game-play. And going by the replies, this is coming to pass more than less, except for that random drama that is off course inevitable in any Twitter reply.
Funny how these announcement threads always stray into some bizarre concoction of half-relevant comments and completely random tangents. You’ve got people talking about the controller themselves-then somebody brings up sticky drift-then all of a sudden we’re discussing PC port sales numbers-then wham-splashed political drama from developers who don’t even have anything to do with this. It’s like trying to follow multiple conversations in a crowded room where no one is focusing on each other.
In any event, this appears another very nice special edition from PlayStation. Lately even ironically, they have been raising the stakes on these designs-well, remember Spider-Man 2 controller?? It was gorgeous. The Astro Bot controller fits right in-coming just before those as truly invested in taking these limited grandiosely away from the mundane route of a mere color-swap.
If you’re one of those who collects gaming merchandise or simply adore Astro Bot, then this one’s probably worth picking up. Just try to stay away from Twitter replies if you care about your sanity. The internet remains undefeated in derailing conversations about literally anything. But at least we’re gaining a cool new controller to show for it.
