Sony’s new $30 DualShock 4 attachment adds back buttons and an OLED display

(Image credit: Sony)

Sony is taking one of the best features of Microsoft's Xbox Elite wireless controller and adding it to the DualShock 4. Officially called a "Back Button Attachment," the $30 accessory is basically a set of customizable paddles that users can program with up 16 different actions.

"This new attachment elevates your gameplay by delivering more versatility and performance, while maintaining the comfort and feel of the DualShock 4 wireless controller you’ve come to love," Sony says.

For the record, we feel the Xbox Elite Series 2 is the best PC controller, partly because the shift paddles work so well. It remains to be seen how Sony's accessory will compare. It's not going to transform the DualShock 4 into a luxury controller. However, the addition of two back buttons that can be mapped on the fly to different actions such as triangle, circle, R1, and R2 is promising. They also provide tactile feedback, Sony says.

Users can save custom configurations to three different profiles. There's also an OLED display that provides real-time information about the button assignments on the back, in case you forget what you programmed. And finally, there's a 3.5mm headset pass-through.

The Back Button Attachment will be available in the US and Canada on January 23, 2020.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

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