If you’ve been holding out for a cheaper, more compact PlayStation 4 controller for the young one in your household, you’re in luck. This week, Sony announced on the PlayStation Blog that Hori’s new Mini Wired Gamepad for PS4 will be available in the US and Canada this holiday season for $29.99 — half the price of a standard controller.
The Mini Wired Gamepad is 40% smaller than the DualShock 4, but still features all of the same joysticks and buttons as its wireless counterpart. The only button that the Mini Wired Gamepad is missing is the touch pad, but Sony says that many of those inputs (which are often inessential) can be simulated with the right or left joysticks.
Although the Hori gamepad has to be connected to your console with a 10 foot cable and lacks the touch pad, light bar, headset jack, speaker, vibration and motion sensing of the DualShock 4, it’s an affordable way to open up local multiplayer in your home. At $60, buying multiple DualShock 4 controllers can be daunting (especially considering how easy they are to break), which makes a cheaper, officially licensed alternative quite attractive.
While the prospect of growing my PS4 controller collection without breaking the bank is an intriguing one, I think the true potential of the Mini Wired Gamepad for me is as a travel companion for PS4 Remote Play. No, the DualShock 4 isn’t exactly a bulky controller itself, but it’s not the easiest item to pack. On the other hand, with its compact shape and design, the Hori gamepad could fit almost anywhere in my backpack or my suitcase.
As often as I travel, either for work or just to visit friends and family back home, having a gamepad that I could bring with me anywhere without having to carve out space for it would be a dream come true. For this reason alone, the Mini Wired Gamepad will be on my list of presents for the holidays this year.
