Scuf Reveals First Line of Third-Party PS5 Controllers, Prices Start at $200

Those are some nice colors. Too rich for my blood though!

I think the $70 Sony Dualsense is pretty epic as is. I'll stick with that when I eventually need a second controller. I can't imagine paying $200+ for a single controller.

That orange one looks slick!

I’m never getting any of these but they look cool.

I really don't get why someone would pay £250 for a controller specifically designed for use in first person shooters when the issue with FPS controls on controller isn't the time it takes to pull the trigger, it's having to aim with a velocity based analogue stick control instead of just pushing a mouse exactly where you want it.

Anyone with any sense would just spend that money on a PC instead of spending (more than) half as much as the cost of a PS5, on a special controller.

I mean maybe they wouldn't do it right now though - they'd probably wait until graphics card prices were a bit more reasonable

So for the price of a Switch Lite I can get a controller? Does it play Steel Battalion?

Warranty = 6 months

Nope, not for me.

Can I just get the back buttons sony instead of paying 200$? That's all I want please.

I'll never understand people paying these insane prices for controllers.

I read FPS reflex and assumed it was some form of mouse

Nah that's okay. I'd rather have controllers that have all of the Dualsense's features in one package.
I was never a fan of these "premium" controllers. I like the regular, stock controllers just the way they are. But I do see how some may like them so each their own.

Sold out. Obvious want/need. I wonder who bought this, the pros, average joes, technophiles, etc.

Now we need Shaun Layden awkwardly plugging them from the TGA sound booth....

They make nice controllers built out of stock shells, but they overcharge in the extreme. The Xbox version costs more then the Elite V2 but offers less. The ps version doesn't offer much over ds5 and physically is just a ds5. The best part is the delrin collars in the stick gates, but I noticed ds5 seems to have them stock for once already.

@PhhhCough scalpers. Duh.

@Royalblues scuf we're basically the "official" pro controller for PS4 (the ones layden plugged at E3)

@Wakkawipeout no, but the sticks are 23.8% less likely to drift!

trash . Xbox Design Labs is way better & the default dualsense looks better than all of them .

Absolutely love my Scuf Impact for PS4, I'll definitely get one of these when I eventually move to PS5.

@Ralizah - I have arthritis in my hands so the price is irrelevant if I can game in relative comfort. Being able to switch from button to paddle inputs on the fly and not having to pull triggers more than a millimetre or so makes a world of difference.

Looks cool but I’m happy with my OG & Midnight Blac dualsense controller. Both still works great

Uhmmm maybe if i was that bothered about my aim with my dualsense i'd hook up a mouse and keyboard to my ps5..most fps games give that option these days..

No haptic feedback or adaptive triggers? So it's a PS5 controller without the features?

I actually prefer the ps4 controller over the ps5’s dualsense controller. Too bad that it does not come with backbutton which would have been perfect for example the returnal

@KippDynamite the Relax and Relex Pro have all the standard PS5 controller features. The SCUFF FPS version has the PS5 features removed. "Pro" FPS gamers turn off all the graphic flare, motion blur etc and controller vibrations/adaptive triggers. It's less about the user experience over gaining a slight advantage over the competition, this controller is targeted at that demographic. Most pro players don't use Scuff controllers however.

Another product where the US and UK prices are the same. Even with tax the UK is being made to pay a higher price for the same item.

I ordered an older model for a friends birthday. He is a very pro player of Fifa and Rocket Leauge (among the top ranked players in Europe in both games), so he takes this stuff seriously. He plays on a PC and I ordered the Dual Shock 4 type scuff controller. It cost a fortune. The whole expereince was pretty terrible.

I paid something like 100$ extra for super fast shipping that was suppose to guarantee it came here in a week, we waited something like 6-8 weeks for it, support was not responding to tickets or answering what was going on.

I wanted to test the controller and I was immediately dissapointed. The quality didn't match up with the price, parts we're squeaky and loose and i I think most of it is 3D printed and you can really notice.

Still I packed it up and gave it to my friend without saying a word, the first thing he did was fire up the deadzone tests and realized they have a huge problem with drift and he wouldn't be able to use them on the level he uses them.

I returned it and exchanged for an Xbox Elite 2. The feeling when that came was amazing. That one is expensive but it feels premium, you can feel the quality and that it's built to last.

So yeah very dissapointed in Scuf. I'd go as far as to say they are a scam and wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Xbox Elite 2 is amazing (I heard the first one had QC issues though), and I wish Sony just did a 1st party pro controller.

No adaptive triggers and/or no haptic feedback? These are objectively worse controllers in many respects for around 4x the cost! No thanks. The only thing I’d find useful about these types of controllers would be the back paddles, but it’s not worth the losses.

Edit: although I can see the benefit for people with arthritis like the guy above.

@thefourfoldroot as stated in the article, and elsewhere in the comments, it's only the FPS version that lacks adaptive triggers. Haptic feedback is unspecified, but 'vibration modules' are listed, so I'd be surprised if it wasn't haptics.

@Jammsbro no, the UK isn't "being made to pay a higher price for the same item". International pricing isn't as simple as "apply exchange rate, good to go", there are all sorts of factors that boil down to "what's affordable in that country", which is why pretty much everything from these, to PSN games, to graphics cards, to computer monitors, to TVs, is priced mostly pretty much the same (numerically) in the UK and the US. It's also why there's a thriving grey market, buying Steam keys for games in poorer countries e.g. in Eastern Europe, and then selling them to people in richer countries in order to turn a profit. It's also why when you buy a can of Coke or Dr Pepper from some roadside cafe in a van, more often than not the ingredients/nutritional info is in some language you don't recognise, because somewhere in the supply chain that was cheaper than buying the UK version.

US prices might look good on paper when the only information you have to hand is the exchange rate, but you don't actually know for a fact that they'd be any more affordable for you if you actually lived and worked over there (due to being born there I mean - if you move over there specifically because of a well paying job that's a different matter entirely )

As cool as they look, it's mental that they're charging that much for a single controller.

I would just wait for official back paddles - hopefully they will come.
PS5 Dualsense is pretty awesome controller and ability to add/remove back paddles would be the best option for me.

I bought the PS4 scuff controller and was very disappointed with the quality of it despite the price tag.

@theheadofabroom
I said and/or precisely because it wasn’t specified. Maybe I wasn’t clear either.

@thefourfoldroot That's fair, although the point still stands that two of the three absolutely do have adaptive triggers, and it's only the third which doesn't, in order to provide a hair trigger. I'm not sure that they couldn't have had the hair triggers be an extra button just below or to the side 🤷

I can't be the only one that think these look bad. The lack of logos on the buttons for a start.

@Icey664 same here. Despite the hype about Scuf, I think the quality of their base controllers does not justify the price tag.

I would recommend Razer pro controllers instead. Even though there is no news about PS5 version...

Woah! And I thought Sony was expensive.

On a slightly unrelated note I normally don't have problems with controllers breaking as many others do but I have with the DualSense. The R2 trigger became very loose to the point of very high sensitivity at simply resting a finger in it. I assume it was due to the pressure sensitive feature they put into it.

Sony replaced it for free since it was under warranty but it does make me worry about durability. I've disabled the feature for now.

DO NOT BUY A SCUF CONTROLLER, I bought the $200 COD MW limited edition controller back when it dropped and after a few months, the sticks started to DRIFT heavily

@danlk1ng Yeah, but you seem to miss the part where they get it for less money, my entire point.

@Jammsbro no.

"Getting it for less money" is what you do, if you exchange your £ for $, go over to America (or use a VPN and set up a US PSN account in the case of digital games) and buy stuff there and bring it back, or otherwise get stuff shipped over here, and even then you're only "getting it for less money" if it works out cheaper after you pay customs charges that might be necessary

They're not "getting it for less money" - they're simply priced differently, for reasons that you're not privvy to/dont understand.

If "getting it for less money" was really a concern, you'd be up in arms about the price of games in poorer countries, where charging UK/US prices with a mere exchange rate applied would completely tank sales in that region

Let's be honest, dudes and dudettes, we are looking at this heap of overpriced trash because, and only because, Sony refuses to put their money where their mouth is and create a premium, pro, 1st party controller.
I mean, I finally decided to go for it and recently bought elite2 at 159... and, I mean, with some luck (that your specific piece was produced well) there is nothing better out there.
I survive on ps4pro with the back button attachment (snatched three during pre-order when people were on the fence) and on PS5... well, ps5 controller is not that bad, yes, I miss the back buttons, but hey I am sure Sony is gonna sell me some toys 'r us level of plastic for it, as well, a year before ps6 is due.

I'll take 4. Hmmmm...

I wonder what the build quality is like for that sort of money? I just wish Sony would just stick some back paddles on the standard dualsense, call it the pro model, charge me £80-£100 and I'd buy one.

Nah, I'm good. Thanks but no thanks. Scuf controllers are high priced thanks to CODbro streamers making them out to be necessary for high caliber play. They might make certain playstyles easier but that doesn't make them 3x the cost to sell.

@Serialsid The same as a Dualsense because they are building them from Dualsenses. That's why there's such small batches, they have to source controllers.

I think the main thing with Scuf is they sell to a VERY small market so the prices are high, plus, I think they use stock controllers as their base and build onto them, so they're probably paying list wholesaler price on stock controllers without a real discount, so they basically have to charge for the stock controller on top of their customizations.

Definitely overpriced. I get why "pro" gamers have to use them, but it's also true that most "pro" players have a pile of dead Scufs sitting around. No different than other "pro" sports/competition gear aimed at people that make money competing, or people who think they'll someday be the people that make money competing. For an actual competitive (for money) player, replacing the triggers with instant triggers is probably worth $200 alone.

@Rural-Bandit I spent so much money trying to find an offset stick controller for PS4....and they were all awful. But I've always hated PS controllers with a passion and searched for anything better. Almost bought the Scuff then. Thankfully, somehow I actually like DS5, it doesn't bother me at all unlike every single prior PS controller.

I'm amazed Sony never did a premium controller. Premium is kind of their thing....

@Royalblues It's ergonomics to a point. I always thought I despised symmetrical sticks. Just the angle of the left stick to the thumb and the use of it as the primary control isn't generally ergonomically ideal. Some people defend the symmetrical sticks as preferred, but mostly I think that's probably down to "growing up with PS."

The symmetrical sticks were never an intended design as a presumed ideal, it came about when Sony saw the N64 released with sticks and the PS1 didn't, so they copied it as fast as they could (especially given the bad blood between PS1 and N64 which was supposed to have actually been the "Play Station") and reissued the standard controller as the Dual Shock (Ours is bigger! We have TWO!) by simply bolting on sticks below the existing D-Pad focused design because they didn't want to mess with the existing design, and the Dpad focus of PS1.

BUT, for PS4 I found a Razer wired controller that still had symmetrical sticks and didn't bother me. And now the DS5 has symmetrical sticks still and doesn't bother me, so it's something about the angle of attack for the thumb joint that can be adjusted. I can now go between DS5 and XS/Elitev2/SwitchPro and it doesn't bother me going between the stick layouts like it did on the DS2, DS3, and DS4. Asymmetrical is still ergonomically superior if the sticks are the primary inputs and not the dpad, but they've finally managed to make it ergonomically suitable to do symmetrical as well, at least for me.

@get2sammyb not two hundred sheets nice dude.

@Royalblues That's probably it. I'm no ergonomics expert, but everything about the older PS controllers felt like they were made for kids hands (or Japanese hands?) it was so cramping to use. And I don't have basketballer hands or anything but too big to use a DS4 and definitely a DS3 comfortably, I guess. I'll have to compare the stick distance tonight, I have a DS4 sitting around still because PS Now stupidly still doesn't support DS5 a year later on PC....

I pretty much play everything, genre wise, except horror and sports games, though genre probably matters less for the controller than perspective, I.E. first person games and third person games would both cover a breadth of shooters, action-adventures, WRPGs, action JRPGs, etc, and all use the controller similarly. Really everything but 2D platformers, fighters, and maybe racers but even racers really control the same as "third person or first person" games short of using the right stick often. Admittedly Sony's layout is probably best for 2D platformers that use the d-pad, so indie fans probably have a solid argument to prefer the PS controllers. Although.....the actual d-pad on the XB controllers is the best dpad since the SNES, and Sony's are still so mushy, so it's maybe a wash where neither is perfect, xb has the better dpad in the worse location for a 2D platformer.

IDK about fighting games, I know a lot of gamepad fighting fans insist on Sony controllers. Personally I'm all about arcade sticks for fighters so I don't have a horse in that race.

It draws passionate arguments on either side, but I don't think any real ergonomic argument can say that the primary interface and "rest" position of the left thumb should be in that low position. That layout makes the most sense if the dpad is the primary input. Which is precisely what it was designed to be back on the PS1, so the classic Dual Shock layout made sense back when it was introduced, since most games on PS1 were really 2D games using a dpad primarily, and the Dual Shock was an optional accessory. DS5 maybe overcompensates and is too big, but for me it's still the better tradeoff.

@Rural-Bandit I'm in somewhat the same place with the DS5. It's not my favorite, but it's my favorite PS controller to the point I can say "I like it, I just don't like it as much as other controllers." DS4 I loathed, but loathed less than DS3, for which my description would be a bannable offense lol I loved the PS3 more than the PS4, honestly, as a platform and generation, but that controller ....that horrible, horrible controller....

@NEStalgia I stream PS now on my PC using a dualsense controller (it was that or just don't do it, I've never had a PS4). You're right that it's not natively supported but there's a nice bit of software called reWASD that lets you map your dualsense controller to PS4 controls, fooling the PC (and PS now) into thinking that it's a DS4. You can also map it so that the PC thinks it's an Xbox controller, and use it for PC games that aren't in Steam. Only slight downer is it's not free, but you get a free week or so and after that it's only £6 or so I think

@Rural-Bandit Exactly! One other detail with the "asymmetrical" sticks that people tend to assume wrong, is that people assume that's "the Xbox layout" but it predates Xbox. Sega actually did it first. N64 went with the awkward middle stick as a secondary input to the dpad, but it was the first console stick at all. Sony rapidly copied it but putting a pair of sticks under the existing PS controller inputs. DS2 was just an enhanced DS1, of course. But the first one to move the left stick up to the upper (dpad) position was in fact Sega on the Dreamcast. It wasn't "asymmetrical" since it only had one stick, but it was Sega that first started putting the left stick in the "primary" control position at the top back in '99. Nintendo and Xbox both did it with asymmetrical twin sticks within 2 months of each other, 2 years later, but it's presumable both copied Sega's lead there, Microsoft with direct assistance from Sega itself, and Nintendo because they'd refuse to do anything the same as Sony given the feud between them. By then Sony already had loyal players that would probably revolt with such a radical change, but that was kind of silly because when Sony started, the "top left position" was the primary input. The location didn't change. Which input is the primary is what changed, so PS players had to adapt to shifting from top left to bottom left as the primary position when moving from PS1 to PS2, while Sega, Nintendo, and MS just moved the analog stick to where the primary position always was. If PS2 wasn't the colossus it was, I'm sure Sony would have changed theirs by now, but PS2's ubiquity made it a pseudo standard even if it was kind of an underthought design.

People often talk about Switch adopting the "Xbox" layout, but it's the other way around. Nintendo had that layout before MS by about 2 months, and both had it 2 years after Sega. Nintendo then tried raising the right stick up to the top too on WiiU and N3DS before going back to the Gamecube layout with Switch.

The Switch Pro definitely borrowed from the Xbox control IMO, or maybe more specifically borrowed from the WiiU Pro that borrowed from 360 except for trying the raised right stick. In some ways WiiU Pro may have had the ideal layout for the "esports shooter" market Scuf tries to dominate, since their thumb is always on the right stick except occasionally, while for other games, the thumb is on the button diamond except for camera adjustments.

I definitely agree about PS4 games being more enjoyable (and easier to do well) with the DS5. I was using that wired Razer controller for most of PS4s life which had a similar feel to the DS5 for me. (More premium, but also "bigger" in a negative way.) I never really liked the DS4, but after the DS3 it was a slice of heaven!

I love RPGs, but I think GoW feels too "WRPG(Lite)" already for that to feel different. I'd like to see them do something totally different. At least a new theme. They've done mythology/medieval since PS2! SP went from cartoon to superhero to historical fiction. Insomniac went from cartoon to modern to superhero lol. Guerilla went from grimdark scifi to postapocalyptic dystopian future with robot dinosaurs. Santa Monica has been in mythology as long as Polyphony has been in race cars... And yeah, I'm feeling the pain of Insomniac becoming the licensed Marvel factory. That's just depressing. It feels like every time Activision buys a studio and turns them into "CoD Unit #5."

TBH, I'm not sure if DS5 is more "Western" or if Sony was just out of touch with what Japan wanted. Japan loves the Switch, and the Switch Pro is basically an X360 controller. Clearly the diminuitive DS3/4 wasn't really what Japan was craving. The old Dual Shock design dates back to when games were toys for kids. It was evolving from a design originally R&D'd for Japanese children in the mid-90s more or less!

@danlk1ng Thanks, yeah, I actually do use reWASD, myself already. I was going to buy that nice red Dual Sense just to use with streaming, but after I figured out it doesn't work natively, and DS4 doesn't work wirelessly, I discovered reWASD and realized I can just use my one Xbox controller for Now and Game Pass and since I have the MS wireless dongle, the latency is much better than BT. But some games are a pain that way if they use the trackpad or sixaxis, so I still keep the DS4 around, but haven't bought a dedicated DS5 for it (at least so far...) Maybe if they introduce that premium service in spring to replace/update Now they'll have better native controller support.

@NEStalgia yeah it'll be interesting to see what happens with the new service assuming it's not just an empty rumor (there's been plenty of those this year). I have a year's worth of PS now (minus a month or so) and 2 years worth of PS plus on my account, and if they're doing a tiered subscription I wonder how those subscriptions will translate into tiers in the new world

I was hoping for another form factor more ergonomic than the original, but even so the price is so ridiculous.
I guess I'm gonna buy my 3'rd Dual sense, hopefully it will last for a 6 months or so until another company releases something comfortable to use and less prone to break.

@danlk1ng logic would say that converts into premium but with months removed for prorating value for the Now covered months because otherwise you lose PS3 games if the rumor details are right. But knowledge of recent business decisions at PS tells me they'll convert it to middle tier with months removed to prorate at the new price, and if you want PS3 games back you can buy premium at full price. But if you have remaining time and want to upgrade you can get a $20 psn credit, valid only toward the purchase of Godfall dlc. 😆

All I need personally, is for Sony to create a back button attachment for the dual sense like they did on ps4. It worked wonders for me being a lefty.

@Royalblues I just compared ds4 to ds5 and the inter-stick distance is identical within a mm or two. The difference must be entirely in the grips and how the controller sits.