This Is How Your PS4 Controller Works

Considering how many hours we spend with a DualShock 4 controller in our hands, we’ve never really wondered how it all works. Oh, we complain about the short battery life or the wear and tear that can occur to the plastic of the analogue sticks – but how does it know that we, er, keep pushing square? And how does it recognise that we want our character to tip-toe to the right?

This video is fascinating, breaking down all of the components and explaining how they work. Did you know, for example, that each time you push a button you’re effectively closing a circuit, allowing electricity to run through the controller so that it knows what you want to do? And have you ever considered how many parts are required to make an analogue stick function effectively?

It’s only 10 minutes in length and glosses over features such as the gyroscope and touchpad, but we genuinely found this a fascinating crash course in the basics of controller construction. It’s something that we’ve never really thought about before, but it’s super interesting to know exactly how the DualShock 4 operates.