My Greatest Fear - Next Generation Gamepad Discussion - More or Less Buttons? No Buttons? And What'd be your Ideal Gamepad?

The gamepad discussion scared me. It's the scariest topic. My greatest fear for the next generation consoles are their standard interface devices. What will it be? Just the same as now? With some added gimmick like Kinect added onto it? Or will they go down the Nintendo Wii path, and commit to a Wii-mote like interface, that's not suited for anything I want to play?

I really hope for more buttons on the next generation of gamepads, and that whatever motion control gimmick comes with the consoles being purely additive, rather than replacing the gamepad as standard interface device.

My ideal gamepad has higher fidelity analogsticks (think higher DPI-mouse), and has at least 6 shoulder buttons (triggers, bumpers), and a mousewheel button would be really neat too. Also - Jeff's 6 face-buttons idea... why not! More buttons please! Love the 360's gamepad's formfactor, so I hope everyone starts off there. Alternatively, I'm intrigued by the concept of breaking the gamepad in two. Kinda like playing with two Nun-chucks... breaking a Dualshock 3 into two pieces.

What about you guys? What do you think it'll be, and did the Bombcast discussion scare you as much as it did me? What do you hope for? And what's your ideal gamepad?

I guess few more buttons wouldn't hurt, there are some button weirdness in some games already so having a few new dedicated buttons could help... In general I'm pretty happy with controllers.

The 360 pad is pretty great like it is.

Conceptually I like the Screen in the Wii U pad. I think it would be kind of cool to have a small touchscreen - maybe the size of the Gameboy screen - on the next Xbox pad.

6 shoulder buttons? Where is there room for those?
I'd like to see two more face buttons, better D-Pads from MS, and better analog sticks.

I like the idea of the controller largely being some kind of hyper-capacitive touch screen, where buttons could be placed on the 'face' wherever the developer so chooses, but still feel as responsive and have the right throw like mechanical buttons. That's a pipe dream though.

Just give me a DualShock 3 and I'm good. Maybe tweak the triggers, but don't fix what isn't broken.

Oh, and I really don't like the idea of having a second screen. I'd rather just hit the back/select button to pull up a nice big map, rather than keep looking down at a small screen in my hands.

I am ready for more buttons! I fully expected to be alone in this so I'm a bit surprised but yes, put a few more buttons on the pad!

Maybe throw in an extra analog stick on there somewhere, or a touchscreen on the back.

I will be immediately skeptical of anything that isn't a regular-ass 360 controller (or maybe something that appears to be a natural and slight evolution of it).

A DualShock 4 that looks and feels more or less the same as the DualShocks that came before. 
 
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I like the 360 controller as it is and no change is needed.

yeah lets keep the bread and butter of games with the Xbox controller and Sony controller. Every other controller should just be dressing but never required or only way to play every game on the system. Xbox should just get a better d pad and Sony needs to fix the back triggers.

This fear should be raised for the next Xbox. Hopefully publishers and developers do the right thing, or the PS4 will be the only console for actual normal gaming with a joypad.

A 360 controller with a Nintendo D-Pad on it. I'm not sure that more buttons are necessary. Maybe 6 face buttons for some games, but not standard. Maybe they make the controller extremely modular with many replaceable parts, but probably not.

The controllers are fine the way they are but I'd like to see the dual shock improve upon the triggers because I'm just not a fan of the cheap feel and placement.

I think using the term "scared" in a debate such as this is meaningless. I don't know if the new systems will have new controllers, new layouts, new button mapping or whatever, and I'm not really concerned about it.

Video game controllers have more or less consistently become better with every iteration (barring motion control), with innovation being the driving factor. I have not yet seen any evidence that new controllers will be problematic in any way.

I agree with Jeff that I would like to see six face buttons. Doubt that will ever happen though.

I like it how it is so far. Save for the L2/R2 triggers on DualShock 3. Sony, please fix this in the next iteration.

I think that adding function buttons for quick save and quick load, for example, would be cool, but extra face buttons or triggers would be cumbersome, the current controllers are already complicated for people who don't play games regularly.

I would love the controllers to be identical to this generation's, aside from a few very minor changes. All the 360 controller needs is a better D-pad and the next Dualshock needs a trigger guard for those L2 and R2 buttons. Any other changes would probably annoy me.

Can't really say I see the need for more buttons. How many games can you list that used all 4 face buttons, 4 shoulder buttons, 4 d-pad buttons and both start and back/select and they were all useful functions ? Sure we see games that often rely on one button too much, but it's usually more a case of practicality rather than just a lack of options. A 360 lay-out controller with a functional d-pad is basically a 8 face button controller, do we really need more ?

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

I think that adding function buttons for quick save and quick load, for example, would be cool, but extra face buttons or triggers would be cumbersome, the current controllers are already complicated for people who don't play games regularly.

ME3 should've really brought in the standard of back/select as quick save (for games that use manual saves). Guess we can still cross our fingers for new standard next-gen.... Don't really think there's a dire need for a quick load button though.

With four face buttons I can rest my thumb in the middle and press the correct button by just rolling my thumb. It would never be as quick with six face buttons.

I think there is room for two more buttons on the back. The way I hold the 360 controller I'd be hitting them with my middle/index fingers

There is room for 2 more buttons, or flaps if you wish to call them that:

But no matter how the gamepad is designed, it is useless until consoles allow remapping in the OS.

The duelshock 2 is the best controller ever

I'd like to see way more accuracy in the sticks, and a little longer for more precise control.

I'd also like to see the general build quality and component quality go up. The xbox controller is not a quality product. The sticks don't re-center well, aren't very sensitive. I've seen quite a few where the top and bottom of the shell doesn't line up all that well. The bad center and drift on the sticks is the worst though. PS3 controller seems better quality-wise but man those shoulders and triggers ... just BAD design.

and no the new xbox dpad is not fine. It's better but it still kind of sucks.

360 Controller with a better D-Pad. Would be cool to if you can adjust analog stick resistance.

The 360 controller is already ideal IMO... the d-pad could be a little better, but people harp on that a little too much since that hardly gets used in games for anything very important. The dual shock feels flimsy to me; as if I could easily break it by squeezing too hard, plus the triggers feel weird and not being able to change the battery once it eventually dies is beyond ridiculous. The sticks right next to each other feel weird when you have big hands. So keeping the 360 controller is perfectly fine and Sony should take note to it.

All the companies should pay Microsoft a licensing fee so that the 360 gamepad becomes the universal gamepad. It's perfect.

Ignoring my mouse & keyboard 'fetish' (which is all cyborg rat), the ideal gamepad for me would be the 360 controller with the PS3 controller's digital pad. Also maybe add a touch surface on its bottom for simple mouse control in windows.

I'm going to be one of those guys and say change, in this case, is really bad. The Dual Shock 3 and 360 gamepad are the near-ideal versions of both controllers.

The controllers now are fine. I mean, I could see an advantage of six face buttons but otherwise both are fine in the button amount department.

I would add some triggers on the back which you can press with your resting fingers. Would be tricky to get it just right, but I'm sure there is a way to do it comfortably.

At the very least we need the same amount of buttons.

I liked the start button placement on the S controller for the Xbox.

2 - 4 more buttons somewhere on the back of the controller (or two more shoulder buttons total) would be nice. The thing I hate most about controllers is that in games where you have to hold a face button to do something such as run or even just press a facebutton to reload or melee attack or something, you have to briefly lose camera control and that really sucks since I'm used to having full camera control all the time with a mouse.

I like the 360 controller like is, but I guess another button or two could work

Same buttons. The controllers are fine the way they are.