Ben-DutkaOne of the most appealing features of the PlayStation Vita – in many a gamer's opinion – is the dual analog stick option.
It's nice to have the fancy touch screen but for long-time PlayStation fans, the sticks are a huge bonus. However, during early stages of development and brainstorming for the new portable, Sony actually considered ditching the dual analogs…can you believe it?
During a PlayStation Blog interview with hardware designer Tokashi Sogabe, we learn that the team thought about alternative plans for control inputs, which included "flat side pads" rather than the standard sticks. Said Sogabe:
"We also built a prototype with flat slide pads, a bit like what you have on your laptop, but it just didn't feel responsive enough for gaming and we learned that you need that physical response of tilting the stick to feel like you have total control. For me as a designer [analogue sticks] have presented a huge challenge, partly because it's much easier to design products with entirely flat surfaces."
He added that the question of the analog sticks was a hotly debated topic. Sogabe wasn't the biggest fan of the idea, but Sony HQ remained firm that "they were in the best position for comfortable gameplay." Another idea that fell by the wayside was a bigger screen (5.5 inches) with buttons incorporated into the display…hmm, wonder how that would've worked out.
So what do you think of the Vita's design?
