Sony: Touchscreen on a controller is distracting

Sony has revealed why the DualShock 4 doesn't feature a touchscreen, claiming that players don't want to be distracted from what's on the TV.

Early prototypes for the DualShock 4 included a touchscreen, but this was swapped out for a touchpad so that players didn't have to concentrate their eyes on two things at once.

"A touchscreen was another idea that we had," Sony's Toshimasa Aoki told GamesBeat.

"We actually tested it, but [besides cost factors], our game teams felt like having to look down at the controller is not what they want to do.

"They want to have the consumers concentrated on the big picture that they show [on the TV]."

The Wii U famously features a touchscreen controller, although the functionality hasn't been as well received as Nintendo hoped.

Aoki also said that Sony considered "drastically changing" the DualShock design.

"We tried out new devices, changing the form factor. We'd start from there and then try to talk to the game teams and tweak toward what the best form would be to have for those new devices," he added.

"So we made, I don't know, more than 20 prototypes. Some had no buttons, just touch panels. Some were rounded. All this crazy stuff."

Eventually Sony settled on the current DualShock 4 design because they didn't want to break the muscle memory of players.

The DualShock 4 will launch with the PlayStation 4 later this year.