The DualSense Edge PlayStation 5 controller is the most expensive first-party controller available for the current generation of games consoles, coming in at a recommended retail price of $199.99. I need to return mine less than a year after purchase because the surface of the controller’s rubber grips are bubbling up and peeling off like a banana skin.
It’s not just me: other apparent DualSense Edge owners have posted photos on social media of their own controllers doing much the same thing.
The news hints at a much deeper manufacturing issue with the Sony-produced controller, with some of the people posting about the grips online saying the issue appeared after normal use of the controller. That certainly applies in my case, too. Games consoles and their peripherals sometimes have issues that result in a mass of returns or even class action lawsuits, as was the case with the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Con drift problem, and the Xbox 360 “red ring of death.” This appears to be the first widely reported issue impacting Sony’s high-priced controller.
“The grip on my DualSense Edge is already starting to peel off after light use and is also yellowing from natural skin oils,” one person tweeted at an official PlayStation account in May, just four months after they appear to have purchased it. After they found other similar reports from affected users online, they wrote: “This is obviously a common issue with this controller and is not acceptable for the price we paid.”