PS4 Button Remapping DualShock 4

One of the more eye-catching additions announced for PlayStation 4 firmware update v2.50 pertained to button remapping. Added as part of a slew of new accessibility features – which allow you to increase the size of text, zoom in, and even invert colours – you can now completely adapt the DualShock 4's controller layout to your tastes. This is intended to make the console easier for people with disabilities to use, but how does it all work?

You'll find the option tucked away in the Accessibility section of the Settings menu. First you'll need to enable Custom Button Assignments, and then you can manually reprogram every button on the DualShock 4. Selecting an input will give you a list of alternate outcomes, so you can, for example, swap Circle and X around. It'll take you a while to get everything as you want it if you're making multiple adjustments, but it's all fairly intuitive stuff.

Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube150k
Watch on YouTube

The important thing to remember is that these tweaks will occur at a hardware level, meaning that they'll be consistent throughout all of the games that you play. This means that control schemes will change, but the game will still display the default button icons. If a title's telling you to press Square, then, but you've mapped that button to R2, you'll need to press R2 in order to follow through. This makes sense inside specific software, of course, but it's a shame that the user interface doesn't dynamically adapt.

To be honest, this feature's probably not going to mean much for the average user. However, as a means of getting people with disabilities playing, its inclusion is very welcome – but Sony should still look at enabling support for some of the custom built controllers on the market. If you're just looking to swap Circle and X around, then this will get the job done – but keep in mind that you're going to need to re-learn every single game's control scheme, so you'll need to decide if that's worth the hassle.