Sony has announced that the “basic functions” of the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4 controller will be compatible with Windows PCs out of the box.
Shuhei Yoshida, President of Wordwide Studios for Sony Computer Entertainment, confirmed the news after a Twitter follower asked if the company would release Windows drivers for the DualShock 4. Yoshida responded by saying that “the analog sticks and buttons will work just fine.” When pressed for additional details, Yoshida stated that only the “basic functions” of the PS4 controller would work by default.
It is currently unclear exactly what Sony considers the “basic functions” of the DualShock 4 to be. At the very minimum, we are expecting that the controller’s “Share” button and touchpad are probably off limits to PC users.
Yoshida would also not say if Windows would recognize the PlayStation 4 controller as a DualShock 4, or if it would feature XInput API — which many third-party manufacturers use to have their devices register as Xbox 360 controllers. According to Shuhei, those details would come in a post-launch “field report.”
Despite not knowing all the specifics, this is probably good news for PC gamers who were also planning to pick up a PlayStation 4. The DualShock 4 is reportedly a very solid pad, and it never hurts to have an extra PC compatible controller laying around.