The Madrid studio, adapted to remote work for weeks, are hopeful for the possibilities offered by the Sony command.
Tequila Works, authors of RiME, The Sexy Brutale or GYLT, the first great Google Stadia exclusive, is immersed in new projects. The Madrid study has had to adapt to a different work methodology since the state of alarm was declared in Spain in March for the coronavirus. Raúl Rubio, CEO of the company, has spoken with FreeGameTips about his adaptation to telework, as we will soon tell you about; But there was also time to talk about the possibilities of the new PS5 controller, the DualSense, protagonist of the next generation of Sony.
A more immersive experience: the possibilities of the PS5 controller
"It is a very interesting idea, but, above all, it is a quite intelligent application of technology," he begins by saying about the novelties that DualSense will offer. In the traditional controls, Rubio began to show a lack of daring when it came to implementing novelties such as those offered by Stadia when interacting with video game controls. With the DualSense, you hope that the situation will be reversed and we will have a more sensory experience.
“Curiously, I have to play on all platforms: PC with mouse; Nintendo Switch; at Stadia with a tablet or the first thing I catch. What happens to me is that I was starting to miss some things. If I play on Switch, it may seem silly, but the Vibration HD shows a lot; the difference is like riding on a latest model Mercedes and a tractor, basically, at the level of sensitivity. Nintendo is an expert in taking technologies, turning them around and making them fun. There are things that, when they are not there, you miss them a lot. For example, the integrated speaker, which offers many possibilities to create actions within the game where everything is contextualized; as if someone starts calling you on the phone, for example. These are details that add immersion ”, he adds, happy to see Sony's daring to change to the traditional DualShock of recent years.
"I see that Sony has been a little more daring and yes that it has tried to see a little more with the function of the button of sharing"
Relocating the light bar is also in the interest of the Tequila Works leader for a mere matter of comfort. “The light bar itself, it is true that it was originally created to use the camera and track the remote; But now it has moved because they realized that people used to play with the remote very close to the television and could reflect the player from the screen. That the bar now turns the touchpad and we see it from the front is just an ergonomic detail, but that adds a lot ”.
GYLT, the last great project of Tequila Works, exclusive to Google Stadia
Haptic feedback and possibilities with biometric data
And the haptic feedback, the most interesting aspect for Rubio of all that has been presented to date about the PlayStation 5 controller. “Haptic feedback is something that we will be able to see not only in passive terms. What would happen if we started having biometric data of the player and if we could know how he feels? In other words, to have an experience more similar to what we have started to see with Stadia ”.
From his perspective as a video game developer, these possibilities can range from fingerprint recognition to being able to feel, which is what the term comes to mean, what we see on screen. Geometry of the hand, special vibration simulation like the one introduced by Apple's Apple Watch these last generations …
The Create button and the end of the "one-way" experience
“Those little innovations, all those tweaks, make the knob exponentially better. I no longer get into ergonomics or which one you may like more or less, "he adds in relation to the current PS4 controller, the DualShock. Regarding the Xbox Series X controller, he believes that it is more an evolution of something that already worked superbly, a more direct way of thinking and without so many peculiarities.
“If you compare, for example, with the Xbox Wireless Controller, when I use it it is for comfort reasons, because of drivers, because it works and it is simple. It is a traditional control, but with a great distribution of weight and sensitivity of the buttons. It is a more conservative proposal; a philosophy with which, as a developer, I see that they have sought more a standardization of components and forget about gimmicks (…) The Microsoft command works and does it perfectly. Everything you can do on PC you can do on Xbox Series X. If you see it that way, its command is more of an evolution, ”he says. As for PlayStation 5: “I see that Sony has been a little more daring and yes that it has tried to see a little more with the function of the button to share, that was a more unidirectional process based solely on sharing the experience. In this case, with Create, you can do something a little more active. And I'll leave it there, ”she laughs, aware of how far she can speak right now.
The Create button will allow "never-before-seen ways to create game content," according to Sony.
PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, much higher hardware than today
Rubio believes that both PS5 and Xbox Series X "have very similar hardware", but that "the jump in hardware features is exponential compared to the previous generation. We used to joke that the current generation was a consequence of the global economic crisis. If with PS3 and Xbox 360 the house had been thrown out the window, with the next generation everything had been much more contained; with GPUs designed to work in low consumption … In this generation, the two have put the batteries and, at the CPU, GPU, transmission buses, speeds, etc., it is really impressive, "he stresses, convinced that the consoles that will arrive at Christmas 2020 will be prepared to last for many years.
Tequila Works will reveal one of its next projects, practically finished, in the near future.
