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Street Fighter V May Support PS3 Joysticks, but Ultra Street Fighter IV Already Does

Street Fighter V May Support PS3 Joysticks, but Ultra Street Fighter IV Already Does

One of the biggest issues in the fighting game community is forward compatibility of joysticks. Many gamers spent over $200 per joystick in the PS3 era, and the thought of having to drop all that money again in the PS4 era is enough to simply keep people from playing next-gen fighting games. Either that or it pushes them to find other less legitimate ways of making their PS3 controllers work on PS4’s, through modding, taking apart PS4 controllers, using third party PCBs, or simply buying an illegal third party import arcade stick. In any of those cases, fighting game makers aren’t really making any money.

Enter Lab Zero, the creators of Skullgirls , who wanted to be sure that owners of the PS3 version of the game would be able to play it on the PS4. They sent out a call for help with programming drivers that would allow PS3 arcade sticks to work with the PS4 interface. The call was answered by Naughty Dog programmer John Bellomy, who developed it in his free time, and soon Skullgirls was the first fighting game to allow for forward compatibility.

Lab Zero has said that they, in the interest in making the fighting game world a better place, would gladly license these drivers out for free for nothing more than a mention in the credits. As a result, other fighting games have started using their drivers, such as the recently released Mortal Kombat X . The PS4 version of Ultra Street Fighter V has also included the drivers, a fact that was unexpectedly announced only a few days before its release.

Now Capcom has announced something even more confusing. In regards to Street Fighter V , Capcom was unable to confirm that PS3 joysticks would end up working with it! This is regardless of the fact that they got them working on Ultra Street Fighter IV . Street Fighter V is still an unknown, which seems incredibly weird considering they could just license Lab Zero’s drivers again.

The official word is that Capcom is “looking into it” but that they could only “share more information soon.” This information comes from Gamespot, who asked them whether or not Street Fighter V would have the same features as Street Fighter IV , directly.

Street Fighter V May Support PS3 Joysticks, but Ultra Street Fighter IV Already Does

This could be because Capcom wants to, instead, create their own drivers for the PS4. Lab Zero’s drivers do have some weaknesses. For example, each PS3 joystick needs to be paired with a PS4 controller, which makes it quite difficult to use in a tournament setting. In addition, Capcom is known for attempting to build their own custom software instead of using software that currently exists. For example, they frequently do not license GGPO, the industry standard for rollback netcode, with their 3D games, usually causing them to have a significant amount of button delay for online games.

What do you think? Should Capcom simply license Lab Zero’s drivers again? Do you want to be able to play with your PS3 joystick on your PS4? Or are you comfortable with dropping money on a PS4 stick anyway? Let us know how you feel in the comments.

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