Sony PlayStation 4 will support just four controllers at once

The Sony PlayStation 4 can be used with up to four controllers simultaneously, three less than the total for the PlayStation 3.

Sony's Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida confirmed on Twitter that the new console would support up to just four controllers at one time. He did so in his usual, one-word or number form, when he was being posed the question.

Shunai Doke of Tech2 reported the news and gave his thoughts on why Sony would be supporting just four controllers.

Yoshida, however, hasn't elaborated on Sony's decision to keep such a low controller count. It is probably for practical reasons, since rarely have gamers actually played local multiplayer with more than three people. The closest anyone got to using all of the controller capabilities of consoles was Rock Band on the PlayStation 3, which almost hit the limit.

The news comes a day after Microsoft announced that the Xbox One would support up to eight controllers. Xbox 360 currently supports four, while the PS3 supports seven.

Outside of peripherals like the PlayStation Move, there's barely any peripherals that take up slots five, six, and seven on the PS3. There's no need for more than four controllers in split-screen play, and there's rarely any need for more than four Move controllers at once.

Sony's decision to cut from seven to four is a good cost-cutting move, slimming down from their ultimate intentions with the PS3 in the past to be this powerhouse of a machine. Is it bad thing? Considering how often more than four controllers would ever be used, not at all.

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