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Introducing Backbone One – PlayStation Edition, an officially licensed controller for PlayStation

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Wow. Asymmetrical sticks.

LS with your left thumb in natural position makes sense as just about every game uses LS for moving. This should be standard on every controller. Not too many games use d-pad as the main moving controls.... maybe fighting games where gamers dont want analog control.

The RS being in natural position or the PS way of 90 degree angle is debatable as it depends on what kind of game you're playing. If the game requires tons of face button pressing, or the game requires tons of RS camera panning, that's up for preference where the RS/face buttons should be laid out.
 

Rykan

Member
Using this argument as a basis and considering the enormous ratio of games that also utilize the right stick for camera controls compared to those that don't, it would mean that the Wii U controller had the perfect layout and design.



However, when this data is brought up, asymmetrical stick Xbox players will move goalposts, backtrack, and argue otherwise, because they don't want to admit that the Wii U, of all consoles, had the most perfectly designed controller. So the entire controller conversation becomes as ridiculous as it's conception.
Well not exactly. Whether you use the right thumb stick more or the face buttons depends entirely on the genre and game you're playing. There are genres that use the right stick constantly (such as shooters) and genres where they are barely used at all or only occasionally. Think fighting and racing games. The facebuttons are still a primary function in nearly every game, though swapping the right stick with the facebuttons is less of an issue as swapping the left stick with the D pad because you use the right stick much more frequently than the D pad.

The Wiiu Pro controller uses that layout because that's the layout that the Wiiu gamepad uses, which is a whole different beast entirely. They went back to the Xbox style lay out (Like nearly every controller does) with the Switch.
 
Well not exactly. Whether you use the right thumb stick more or the face buttons depends entirely on the genre and game you're playing. There are genres that use the right stick constantly (such as shooters) and genres where they are barely used at all or only occasionally. Think fighting and racing games. The facebuttons are still a primary function in nearly every game, though swapping the right stick with the facebuttons is less of an issue as swapping the left stick with the D pad because you use the right stick much more frequently than the D pad.

The Wiiu Pro controller uses that layout because that's the layout that the Wiiu gamepad uses, which is a whole different beast entirely. They went back to the Xbox style lay out (Like nearly every controller does) with the Switch.
2dz.gif


You did exactly what I said what would happen and you don't even see it.
 

01011001

Banned
Using this argument as a basis and considering the enormous ratio of games that also utilize the right stick for camera controls compared to those that don't, it would mean that the Wii U controller had the perfect layout and design.

Nintendo-Wii-U-Pro-Controller-Black.jpg

the Wii U controller has the absolutely superior design indeed. Xbox is a close second of course, being asymmetrical... it's a compromise...
both sticks on the bottom is bad in both ways tho, so... 🤷‍♂️
 
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jaysius

Banned
I'd say if you find one with perfect symmetric nipples, then I'd say she's probably the weird one.

From some suffering from severe ocd, I can assure you that almost nothing is symmetrical.
Perfect symmetry in nature is extremely rare.

It's why everyone has a "good side" for pictures.
 

Three

Member
Well not exactly. Whether you use the right thumb stick more or the face buttons depends entirely on the genre and game you're playing. There are genres that use the right stick constantly (such as shooters) and genres where they are barely used at all or only occasionally. Think fighting and racing games. The facebuttons are still a primary function in nearly every game, though swapping the right stick with the facebuttons is less of an issue as swapping the left stick with the D pad because you use the right stick much more frequently than the D pad.

The Wiiu Pro controller uses that layout because that's the layout that the Wiiu gamepad uses, which is a whole different beast entirely. They went back to the Xbox style lay out (Like nearly every controller does) with the Switch.
If you're playing a fighting game to be using the face buttons you would use the DPAD anyway and end up with the same conundrum of your thumb being in the all so unbearable position. That was sarcasm by the way. Truth is people can use any position fine. I've seen less people complain about the all sorts of car control configurations and that shit can get you killed. Gamers are a special bunch.
 
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01011001

Banned
If you're playing a fighting game to be using the face buttons you would use the DPAD anyway any end up with the same conundrum of your thumb being in the all so unbearable position.

not true, having your Thumb in a 45° angle on the D-Pad is the optimal way to play a fighting game. in that position you can easily roll and press any direction without moving your thumb an inch

this is also how most people held the SNES controller for example:
snes-controller-pal.original.jpg


notice how the shape of the controller and the positioning of the D-Pad almost automatically make you use the D-Pad at a 45° angle, and that's a controller that many still call the best 2D controller ever.

which one looks more comfortable to do fast rolls with in a fighting game?

the one where all 4 sides are covered and all you have to do is literally tilt your thumb around?
thump45dake5.png


or the one where you don't cover everything quite as well and you have to move your thumb around?

thumpstraightk9k0s.png



I know I vastly prefer the first one for sure. and whenever I play a fighting game on a PS4 or PS5 controller, I never hold my controller firmly like I do when playing other games, I always hold it a bit like this:
(just imagine the thumb being on the D-Pad here... that's the closest I found online lol)
maxresdefault.jpg

my left hand will be tilted away from the handle to get a good coverage on the d-pad



on an analog stick on the other hand, you want your thumb to be more straight on, because it's way easier to precisely move in cardinal directions if your thumb is oriented in a north/south position.
of course you will get used to it in any position after a while but still
 
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nocsi

Member
I have a backbone. I do use it with ps remote play and steam link a lot. The reason for this vs a dual sense is how easy it is to slide your phone into it and not have to worry about a charged secondary controller. It’s a decent device save for the company coercing you to pay $99/year subscription.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
PlayStation without the gimmicks is perfect but I respect the creative mobile purposes.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
£99 is a bitch. Hopefully we’ll get a drop to the £40-60 mark around Black Friday. Not sure if this brand usually have sales?
 

01011001

Banned
Give me a PS5 version please.

Hori controllers are shit, low quality crap of the highest order.

I have 2 hori pads, a PS4 controller and the Split Pad for Switch, the PS4 one has input lag like a motherfucker and both developed stick drift within a year.

the Split Pad also has a shitty dead zone you can't get rid of, and L3 doesn't register if you move the stick all the way in any direction... was really fun playing Metroid Dread with that :) I always had to press L3 and quickly move the stick, real fun :)

I also barely even used either controller yet they have stick drift... real quality shit right there!

Thankfully I got both dirt cheap during black Friday
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
not true, having your Thumb in a 45° angle on the D-Pad is the optimal way to play a fighting game. in that position you can easily roll and press any direction without moving your thumb an inch

this is also how most people held the SNES controller for example:
snes-controller-pal.original.jpg


notice how the shape of the controller and the positioning of the D-Pad almost automatically make you use the D-Pad at a 45° angle, and that's a controller that many still call the best 2D controller ever.

which one looks more comfortable to do fast rolls with in a fighting game?

the one where all 4 sides are covered and all you have to do is literally tilt your thumb around?
thump45dake5.png


or the one where you don't cover everything quite as well and you have to move your thumb around?

thumpstraightk9k0s.png



I know I vastly prefer the first one for sure. and whenever I play a fighting game on a PS4 or PS5 controller, I never hold my controller firmly like I do when playing other games, I always hold it a bit like this:
(just imagine the thumb being on the D-Pad here... that's the closest I found online lol)
maxresdefault.jpg

my left hand will be tilted away from the handle to get a good coverage on the d-pad



on an analog stick on the other hand, you want your thumb to be more straight on, because it's way easier to precisely move in cardinal directions if your thumb is oriented in a north/south position.
of course you will get used to it in any position after a while but still
I agree with this.

Your example also plays true for the face buttons. Having it in diamond formation with your right thumb at an angle makes it easier to do combo presses like X+A and Y+B. I wonder if they engineered that on purpose or it was a lucky consequence. Because back then only fighting games really required combo presses like that regularly.

That was a problem with the standard Genesis 3 button pad. Harder to do combo presses A+B or B+C.

Although small, I think the SNES gamepad is definitely one of the best gamepads ever. The shoulder buttons were awesome. And it worked so well as you could use them using your index fingers. The Genesis 6 button gamepad was shit. It worked, but for SNES games using the shoulder buttons for important gameplay features like scrolling (Contra 3 overhead levels and On The Ball level rotating) you cant do that kind of think on the Genesis controller at the same time unless youre a mutant with three thumbs.

Even for fighting games it was great. Easier to use LT and RT immediately for strong attacks in SFII than shifting your thumb around Genesis 6 button pad finding the right button.
 
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S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Hori controllers are shit, low quality crap of the highest order.

I have 2 hori pads, a PS4 controller and the Split Pad for Switch, the PS4 one has input lag like a motherfucker and both developed stick drift within a year.

the Split Pad also has a shitty dead zone you can't get rid of, and L3 doesn't register if you move the stick all the way in any direction... was really fun playing Metroid Dread with that :) I always had to press L3 and quickly move the stick, real fun :)

I also barely even used either controller yet they have stick drift... real quality shit right there!

Thankfully I got both dirt cheap during black Friday
I been using Hori controllers since the six button imported PS1 pad they had and beg to differ.

I did skip the switch and ps4 offerings. (save the fightpads which were excellent.)

Anyway I would love some 3rd party PS5 controllers as PS5 needs em badly.
 

yurinka

Member
Would be nice if Sony would do a similar thing but with a proper dpad, analogs in symmetrical positions, Android support and suitable for tablets too.
 

01011001

Banned
I been using Hori controllers since the six button imported PS1 pad they had and beg to differ.

I did skip the switch and ps4 offerings. (save the fightpads which were excellent.)

Anyway I would love some 3rd party PS5 controllers as PS5 needs em badly.

if you didn't have a recent one I think you'll have a different experience with them.
back in the days without analog sticks it was a bit different.

their modern controllers have absolutely ass analog sticks, and their wireless controllers often have latency issues.

I had that SNES like GameCube controller from them back in the day, and that one was pretty good too, but again, no sticks on that thing and it was wired.

I Just think their analog sticks they use are super cheap, the caps feel weird, and they break easily.
 
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BlackTron

Member

I have this. In fact I have a few offset stick PS4 controllers. They're all mediocre, including this one.

I all but gave up until I scored an Astro c40 last month. It's the first offset PS4 controller that actually made me want to play the library.

The Onyx has great sticks, but feels poor in the hand and has bad triggers. You'd expect a Xbox-like feel from the photos, but in practice it really pushed me towards playing something on an Xbox or Switch Pro instead...so the same effect as a dual shock. I ordered it when Ghost of Tsushima came out, ended up playing with a real Sony pad anyway.

Astro C40 is God-tier but expensive. There's really no easy solution to this problem.
 

TrebleShot

Member
Ordered on a whim when announced And used it extensively yesterday.

+ Nice solid build and very comfortable to use *initially
+ Unified UI is beautiful and works better than the likes of PS5 and XBOX
+ Connection and usage with PS remote play is incredible like a native experience no bs, its excellent
+ Xbox cloud streaming also excellent, almost native experience only issue is the resolution
+ Worked flawlessly with GEFORCE now and again was similar to native - would choose this over xcloud due to res
+ Native games work excellently, head online in COD mob and you’ll absolutely dominate
+ Brawlhalla was really fun and intuitive
+ Great integration with community aspects short auto play clips everywhere that give you a nice idea of a games content
+ D pad has a nice feel to it
+ Triggers are nice, much better than say switch and are analogue

- A symmetrical sticks make the right hand very cramped, symetrical would have been the way to go found it hard to be accurate as the sticks are small
- X cloud, GeForce Now and other web apps on Iphone do not launch from the UI, you will need to back out of the UI find the web app and launch it
- Black bars either side of iPhone 13 pro max screen (seems an app restriction As native apps are full screen)
- UI is premium and tbh worth it

Improvements:

* Future iterations need the symetrical sticks
* iPhone 14 is likely to be USB C so some sort of adaptor or new version will be needed
* Work web apps into the UI or allow to launch straight into games from UI to cloud gaming
* Somehow integrate friends lists into the UI so you have your Xbox, PS5, Steam and Discord friends in one UI

Overall, VERY impressed and excited to see the future of things like this, as streaming games gets bigger and bigger, I imagine more people will be playing via mobile devices and with the Miriad of services out there, having a software solution to bring multiple platforms together is very smart and the UI really is gorgeous and snappy.

Id love to see a backbone console that does a similar thing, or even backbone app on the Apple TV would be epic.

I would recommend anyone to try it, just a shame about the sticks! Not a deal breaker though.

Also posted this in the other place.
 
Ordered on a whim when announced And used it extensively yesterday.

+ Nice solid build and very comfortable to use *initially
+ Unified UI is beautiful and works better than the likes of PS5 and XBOX
+ Connection and usage with PS remote play is incredible like a native experience no bs, its excellent
+ Xbox cloud streaming also excellent, almost native experience only issue is the resolution
+ Worked flawlessly with GEFORCE now and again was similar to native - would choose this over xcloud due to res
+ Native games work excellently, head online in COD mob and you’ll absolutely dominate
+ Brawlhalla was really fun and intuitive
+ Great integration with community aspects short auto play clips everywhere that give you a nice idea of a games content
+ D pad has a nice feel to it
+ Triggers are nice, much better than say switch and are analogue

- A symmetrical sticks make the right hand very cramped, symetrical would have been the way to go found it hard to be accurate as the sticks are small
- X cloud, GeForce Now and other web apps on Iphone do not launch from the UI, you will need to back out of the UI find the web app and launch it
- Black bars either side of iPhone 13 pro max screen (seems an app restriction As native apps are full screen)
- UI is premium and tbh worth it

Improvements:

* Future iterations need the symetrical sticks
* iPhone 14 is likely to be USB C so some sort of adaptor or new version will be needed
* Work web apps into the UI or allow to launch straight into games from UI to cloud gaming
* Somehow integrate friends lists into the UI so you have your Xbox, PS5, Steam and Discord friends in one UI

Overall, VERY impressed and excited to see the future of things like this, as streaming games gets bigger and bigger, I imagine more people will be playing via mobile devices and with the Miriad of services out there, having a software solution to bring multiple platforms together is very smart and the UI really is gorgeous and snappy.

Id love to see a backbone console that does a similar thing, or even backbone app on the Apple TV would be epic.

I would recommend anyone to try it, just a shame about the sticks! Not a deal breaker though.

Also posted this in the other place.
Very interesting to read someone opinion that has first hand experience, hopefully there will come to android so in the future for us that don't have a half eaten apple.
 
$100 is too much for just remote play. I hear we can't stream PS+ Extra/Premium to Android or iOS.
remote play is supposed to be based on PS Now streaming tech, so if one works the other should too. Can't be that complicated. But took them also forever to allow all android brands to have remote play and not only their owns Sony devices. (at least I tihnk it works on all Androids now... on Samsung it does) But they also stopped PS Now for Vita and PS TV even though both would be ideal as conveniant low power stream devices. And since Remote play works on them better than on my phone I doubt there is a technical reason. (might be the limits of my router though, but a 720p signal should not be its limits?)
 

01011001

Banned
+ Native games work excellently, head online in COD mob and you’ll absolutely dominate

controller aiming in COD mobile is absolutely crap even on good sticks, so I highly doubt it's any good on Joycon like sticks, which are terrible to begin with

touchscreen+gyro are king in CoD mobile, on controller you'll be blasted by good players
 
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TrebleShot

Member
controller aiming in COD mobile is absolutely crap even on good sticks, so I highly doubt it's any good on Joycon like sticks, which are terrible to begin with

touchscreen+gyro are king in CoD mobile, on controller you'll be blasted by good players
I am very casual and aren’t interested in being a competitive e sports player.
 

Agent X

Member
Great review, TrebleShot TrebleShot !

While the product looks good visually, and does have some cool features, I feel that it might struggle in the market for a few reasons.

1. They need to offer a version that’s compatible with Android devices. (Looks like that might be coming later this year.)

2. They really, really need to retool the control layout to match the traditional PlayStation control scheme that has endured for years. On the left side of the controller, the D-pad must be in the upper position, and the analog stick in the lower position.

I suppose if someone wanted a controller with asymmetrical analog stick placement (for whatever reason), then they could just purchase Backbone's already existing controller (without the PlayStation branding). However, if they’re going to offer a product specifically for PS4/PS5 fans, then they ought to go whole hog and deliver something that plays to PlayStation sensibilities.

Backbone really dropped the ball here. This could have been a brilliant opportunity to stand out with a distinct PlayStation offering, but they instead chose to merely slap a coat of paint on their existing product and rush it to market. We don’t want the old controller rebadged, but rather a properly designed device that utilizes the authentic control scheme.
 

01011001

Banned
if you were playing fighting games you'd likely not use a controller anyways since arcade sticks are a better choice (and arguably keyboard is too)

that's such a myth. sticks aren't better whatsoever, they are arguably worse because you can't move as fast on them compared to a dpad.

a Keyboard or even one of those "Hitboxes" sure, those might be superior to a controller.

most people play on stick because they either got lured into it or because they used to play on arcades and are more used to it than controller.

someone won SF4 at EVO using a PS1 controller + controller adapter... and I would argue the PS1 controller is not even a good controller for fighting games due to the rather stiff Dpad that also has sharp edges and is split, leading to sometimes painful circle motions
 

01011001

Banned
I am very casual and aren’t interested in being a competitive e sports player.

even playing casually, CoD mobile's controller aiming is pretty shit, which is a shame considering that CoD on console was leading in terms of good controller aiming for almost a decade.

but that's what happens when shit gets outsourced to chinese or korean devs that aren't familiar with the main series
 

TrebleShot

Member
Great review, TrebleShot TrebleShot !

While the product looks good visually, and does have some cool features, I feel that it might struggle in the market for a few reasons.

1. They need to offer a version that’s compatible with Android devices. (Looks like that might be coming later this year.)

2. They really, really need to retool the control layout to match the traditional PlayStation control scheme that has endured for years. On the left side of the controller, the D-pad must be in the upper position, and the analog stick in the lower position.

I suppose if someone wanted a controller with asymmetrical analog stick placement (for whatever reason), then they could just purchase Backbone's already existing controller (without the PlayStation branding). However, if they’re going to offer a product specifically for PS4/PS5 fans, then they ought to go whole hog and deliver something that plays to PlayStation sensibilities.

Backbone really dropped the ball here. This could have been a brilliant opportunity to stand out with a distinct PlayStation offering, but they instead chose to merely slap a coat of paint on their existing product and rush it to market. We don’t want the old controller rebadged, but rather a properly designed device that utilizes the authentic control scheme.
I do agree with you in some senses however it should be the face buttons moving down and dual sticks to be symmetrical at the top of the handles, trust me having them both low will mess your hands up. The palm sits higher on these like a switch controller.
 

Agent X

Member
I do agree with you in some senses however it should be the face buttons moving down and dual sticks to be symmetrical at the top of the handles, trust me having them both low will mess your hands up. The palm sits higher on these like a switch controller.

That's a good point, and I'll take your word for it, since you have first-hand experience with the product. That's definitely better than the asymmetrical format that they're using now.

On that note, it might still be good for Sony to create (or license) a similar device with the true PlayStation configuration.
 

zephiross

Member
My quick 2 cents on the thing since I just bought one :

If you intend to play games that require the least bit of precision using the sticks, don't bother, they are dogshit. I'm refunding mine.

otherwise it's a controller, nothing really outstanding about it except the price.
 

TrebleShot

Member
Highly recommended .
I’ve got a Logitech g cloud now but this is absolutely awesome and the backbone software is second to none.
 

mckmas8808

Banned
Folds open into a tablet. But because of where the usb port is, you would fold down below the controller vs above. They would need to move it to the left side.
galaxy fold GIF

Oh I see. Isn't that the fault of the person buying a Samsung Fold 4 then? It looks like a great phone though.
 
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