“A few days ago, I was swinging around in Miles Morales when I felt the R2 snap and immediately become looser. It was as if whatever was causing the trigger to "resist" broke, causing it to go back to being a regular, non-adaptive trigger,” writes resetera user EeK9X. The user goes on to say that he has less than 50 hours of playtime on the PS5 and says he has taken good care of the console.
One user on Reddit writes, “Hello All. About one week into Demon's Souls, I just noticed my R2 trigger abruptly started activating under the slightest touch, or even controller movement. Inspecting the outside of the controller, The R2 trigger is now significantly looser than the L2; the slightest jiggle will rattle it in its place. I noticed several posts on Reddit and YouTube with other users experiencing this issue, but no feedback other than Sony seems to charge return shipping to address the issue”.
So, it looks like the issue with the DualSense adaptive trigger isn’t an isolated incident. However, the good news is that since the console is a little over a month old for almost all users, gamers can get this fixed through warranty. It will mean being without a controller for a few days, but you can use your DualShock 4 controller to play PS4 games on the PS5.
During various teardowns of the DualSense controller, we have seen the mechanism that provides the resistive tension in the triggers and the longevity of this mechanism was questioned. It is possible that Sony will alter the design and implementation of the Adaptive Trigger to provide longevity going forward, but that’s something we will have to wait and see.
We have a PS5 with us (first impressions) and we have not faced any problems with the adaptive triggers so far. Games like Call of Duty Cold War and Astro's Playroom have heavy implementation of the Adaptive Triggers. Upcoming games like Deathloop and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart has also emphasised the use of the Adaptive Triggers, so it is a feature that game developers are definitely looking to exploit.
If you are sceptical about using the adaptive triggers, know that you can go into the system settings of the PS5 and disable the adaptive triggers, so they will function like regular triggers.
While the PS5 is selling internationally and is out of stock in most places, India is still left without an official launch date with the grapevine still suggesting a January 2021 launch with limited stocks. We do however have an India price for the PS5 and you can see how it compares to the price in other countries here.