Skullgirls Dev Outdoes Sony: Makes PS3 Fight Sticks Work on PS4

Steven Bogos

The Taco Man
Jan 17, 2013
9,354
0
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Skullgirls Dev Outdoes Sony: Makes PS3 Fight Sticks Work on PS4


Best of all, Skullgirls dev Lab Zero Games is giving away its driver for free to any developer who wants to use it.

As of right now, if you want to use a fight stick controller on your PS4, you can't just plug in your old PS3-compatible stick. You have to go out and buy a new one. C'est la vie, right? Wrong, says Skullgirls developer Lab Zero Games. "We think it's better for the consumer and the industry that you be able to spend your hard-earned money buying games instead of buying a new fight stick," said Lab Zero CEO Peter Bartholow, who has just announced that the upcoming Skullgirls port for PS4 will support your old PS3 fight stick.

Best of all, Bartholow says that the driver his team created to work this magic will be freely available for any other developer who wants to use it, which in theory means that all upcoming PS4 fighting games could be compatible with PS3 fight sticks.

Sony has officially approved the driver, but it cannot force developers to use it, and as its not an official PS4 feature, developers have to actively choose to implement it. While you may be sitting there thinking "What kind of crazy developer would choose not to implement this consumer friendly code?" some of the biggest fighting game developers have racked up quite a reputation for being inexplicably consumer un-friendly. We won't name names. You know who we are talking about.

Bartholow explained that building this driver wasn't as simple as flipping a switch, and Lab Zero had to partner with Naughty Dog programmer John Bellomy for help. He explained that the driver isn't an official Naughty Dog initiative, but is more of a side project for Bellomy.

If you're interested in helping Lab Zero finalize the driver, the company will be testing at its upcoming public events, so be sure to keep an eye on the Lab Zero Games official website [http://labzerogames.com/] for info on events near you.

Source: Giant Bomb [http://labzerogames.com/]

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Roxas1359

Burn, Burn it All!
Aug 8, 2009
33,758
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Well that's pretty cool, and I say nice on Bellomy to help out with this little side project. This really only benefits gamers here, so let's hope that other developers use the drivers. Although I expect Capcom will choose to not use them, but would that surprise anyone. :p
 

RicoADF

Welcome back Commander
Jun 2, 2009
3,147
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That's the sort of attitude more devs need, I'm tempted to get the game to support the practise even though fighting games don't interest me alot (their not bad, just not my favoriate genre). I tip my hat to you Lab Zero Games.

 

faefrost

New member
Jun 2, 2010
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That's neat. I'm always a fan of those who make old beloved hardware work on new systems.
 

Grabehn

New member
Sep 22, 2012
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I'm probably not gonna play this anyways, nor even have a PS console at all, but you know what I love the most about this thing?
This line: "Sony has officially approved the driver"
 

Gailim

New member
Oct 13, 2009
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Escapist, that is an Xbox 360 stick in the picture. The PS3 version has all black buttons
 

Hairless Mammoth

New member
Jan 23, 2013
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Considering how USB has been on all consoles for the past two generation, planned obsolescence of controllers, especially third-party ones like fight sticks, was getting very apparent. I'm glad to see someone break that for at least one console.
 

erbkaiser

Romanorum Imperator
Jun 20, 2009
1,137
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Can
Anyone
Please
Convince
Older
Manufacturers

to implement this in their games?

Too bad the people behind Drive Club (or Logitech itself maybe?) haven't chosen to support the Logitech G27. This article proves that Sony was right, it is up to the game developer to implement support for USB controllers that lack the security chip and it's not some kind of built-in limitation to the console.
 

LaochEire

New member
Mar 9, 2010
104
0
0
erbkaiser said:
Can
Anyone
Please
Convince
Older
Manufacturers

to implement this in their games?

Too bad the people behind Drive Club (or Logitech itself maybe?) haven't chosen to support the Logitech G27. This article proves that Sony was right, it is up to the game developer to implement support for USB controllers that lack the security chip and it's not some kind of built-in limitation to the console.
I think the DriveClub devs have said they're trying to make all wheels work with their game, but it will come in a later patch.