So I'm a guy who likes to play games to release stress. So when I'm playing FIFA and I press X and the guy doesn't pass the ball and consequentially I suffer a goal at the 86th minute and lose the cup final, the first thing I do is beat the shit out of the controller. Like me, many many people do this. We are not crazy people, we just like to be calm peaceful people and stress it out on videogames, so our controllers get beaten up real bad.
Now here's the thing.
I have a PS1 controller over there that's 12 years old. That's 12 years of intense use and beating. It doesn't have one single scratch. It works flawlessly, except for the analogs that have loosen up with time but that's normal.
And right in front of me now I have a 3 month old PS3 controller. It's broken. I can't put 2 of the screws on place or they fall into the controller, the triggers are acting funny, half the case doesn't close, the other half has it's plastic cracked, and the D-pad is as loose as a naked 18yo cheerleader with 7 martinis in her.
This with just a couple of punches.
I'm a very scientific guy, so out of curiosity I opened up both these controllers and I was freaking shocked. Maybe I'll post some pics later, but here's what I saw:
The DS3(Dual Shock 3) plastic is considerably less dense and heavy than the plastic used on DS1's exterior case.
The DS1 has some sort of board covering and supporting the front buttons, the DS3 doesn't. The DS3 has some very flimsy pieces of plastic supporting the dpad and front buttons. This results in them breaking and the buttons getting loose (like my dpad is), the chances of this happening on the DS1 are very slim.
The screws holding up the plastic case are thicker in the DS1. [EDIT: it also has 7 screws as opposed to DS3's 5]
The vibration motors are extremely tightly secured on the DS1, on the DS3 you can simply and easily pull them off.
There's considerably more plastic and supporting stuff on the DS1. The electronics are also more spaced and not concentrated on the central section of the controller like the DS1.
Then there's the triggers. The DS1 doesn't have triggers, it has simple shoulder buttons. It's a very simple mechanical design that leads to sometimes these getting stuck, but it also makes them virtually not breakable. They support on the actual casing, there are no moving parts. The DS3 however has these "triggers". Thing is they aren't really triggers! Mechanically they are just the exact same buttons with the flimsiest, most fragile little spring I have ever seen!! This spring isn't even supported onto anything! It's extremely easy to jump out of place and troublesome to put it back right. It seems like a really late afterthought. Not only that but the whole trigger mechanism has these supports that hold it in place, but these are made in a way that the whole trigger easily goes out of place. It's not real triggers, like the Dreamcast, like the Xbox.
Hell, my Xbox controller survived 3 fucking years of being thrown against the fucking wall! And besides this, it has real triggers, better analogs and a freaking great weight. Still, the PS3 controller is more expensive!
What the fuck is this shit!
There was a time when a Sony product meant really good build quality. Something that could get used and abused and still work decades later (like the DS1). So why are the new controllers so god awful?
Also, who is the fucking genius that thought having batteries on controllers was a good thing? Batteries lose about 50% of it's capacity in a short/medium period of time. In fact, that maybe isn't even a problem since these controllers DON'T EVEN LAST 3 MONTHS.
God what an awful build quality.
Do you guys have any hardware that disappointed you? Do share.
