The Dualsense controller is arguably the most exciting aspect of the new 9th generation console, with its only real competition being the SSDs they both have. I really like the controller, with the exception of having a microphone in it which makes me uncomfortable. I think it looks great, the improved rumble and trigger tension both have potential to them (only realized so far in Astrobot) and it feels solid and comfortable when I hold it.

But I think it's doing something to my right hand.

I first noticed this when I was playing Maneater, a game where fighting pretty much involves jamming on buttons until the enemy died. I played a lot of it over the course of a weekend and was jamming on buttons a ton and I started developing pain in my right hand that felt like a muscle strain. This actually got kind of serious over the course of the next few days and it lingered when I wasn't playing games and made it a little painful to type and do other things. I have a long history of playing video games, including jamming on buttons, and it's never caused this kind of pain before, but I'm getting on in years and as anyone who gets a little older knows things in your body work perfectly until they don't. I wasn't sure what exactly caused it (the pain came on sort of gradually, and I lift weights, which can cause strain or muscle fatigue in a hand) and I decided to just monitor it and hope it would go away.

Over the next week or so it wasn't going away, instead it was lingering and maybe getting a bit worse and I started thinking about going to my doctor to get tested for carpal tunnel or whatever.

Then I stopped playing PS5 for a while. I wasn't even thinking about the controller or my hand, I was just focused on other games, and when my hand started feeling better I didn't connect it to the PS5 at all. I just figured whatever had happened was finally healing.

A couple days ago I went back to playing my PS5, and this morning I turned on Spider-Man Remastered to mess around in Manhattan, got into a couple brawls with some Magia goons, jammed on the buttons again (as you do in Spider-Man) and started feeling it in hand again.

I have no idea why the Dualsense would cause this and I'm honestly not even sure it is the Dualsense that's to blame. The controller feels very comfortable in my hand and it's not that different from a PS4 controller, which I've been using since the launch of that machine. It might be something to do with trigger tension or the shape of the thing or whatever. I haven't seen anyone else complaining about it so maybe it's just my hands and this device. Maybe it's just a coincidence (though I've played a bunch of other games on other controllers in the last couple weeks.) There's another possible explanation because I rarely drive a car and I had to drive for about 5 hours yesterday, so it could just relate to having held the wheel so long, but I'm officially worried. If I go to a doctor and say "this particular controller makes my hand hurt if I use it and the pain lingers" they'll say "then don't use that controller" and maybe I shouldn't, but I'll be super disappointed if I can't enjoy the Dualsense features because of some kind of weird ergonomic incompatibility. I've been excited about its potential and now I might miss out. I'm sure I can find some other controller to play PS5 games with (Dualshock 4 or some random third aprty thing) but it won't have the special rumble or trigger tension.

I don't know if anyone else has had the experience of a particular controller being painful to use, but why did it have to be the most exciting and innovative controller since the Wiimote?