Remember a couple of weeks ago when the internet got unusually annoyed (or maybe not that unusually) about the design of 007: First Light’s limited edition DualSense PS5 controller?
Well, sorry to remind you if you didn’t. In brief: developer IO Interactive revealed a fancy controller earlier this month, featuring a gold-all-over paint job and a central 007 motif, with lines reaching out from a central circle.
The pushback was immediate and enjoyably ridiculous. “Stop getting Bond wrong!” yelped reddit user SickSlashHappy at the time, while LordMegamad, in a bout of nominative determinism, said “The idea of a 007-themed controller, with a design inspired by the inside of a barrel, not referencing the 007 intro sequence stretches my credulity a bit too far lol” – at least they added the lol.
Anyway, the issue itself is that the controller’s lines, jutting out from that central circle, are straight. But if the controller was meant to be referencing the iconic opening sequence of Bond – where he turns, silhouetted, to point his pistol and fire at the camera – then the lines should in fact be curved, in a spiral shape representing the rifling of a gun’s barrel (which we’re meant to be looking down towards Bond, of course).
Speculation was rife, or at least technically present, as to what might have been the reasoning for doing straight lines rather than spiralled ones to represent rifling. And now I’ve troubled poor Rasmus Poulsen, art director on 007: First Light, about the design during a recent interview – from which you can read much more in our big 007: First Light hands-on preview. Poulsen, notably, was also the man behind the PlayStation blog post written for the controller’s reveal.
“The thing about the straight lines is everybody can do just a gun barrel, right?” Poulsen told me. “But in that sense, I think it’s actually very telling that it’s not a straight-up gun barrel, because that is an icon of the franchise.
“It isn’t actually anywhere,” he continued, alluding to the fact you don’t actually see rifling around in the real world (unless you have a habit of staring down gun barrels, of course), or within the actual Bond films themselves beyond the introduction. “I mean, it’s inside every weapon, of course – but now I’m getting ahead of myself.” He pauses.
“What we were trying to do with that was reference more how the UI of the game feels. So rather than simply making a franchise stamp, it relates to our product, in the sense that it has that UI sense – and then it has more of a, dare I say, ‘Sun’ flavour, referring back to the title. And you’ve seen the title sequence.” I have, and it is very nice, and does include lots of light rays – rays which travel, of course, in straight lines. “So there’s some things about light and shadow that we wanted to play with.”
So there you have it. The 007: First Light limited edition controller is supposed to look like that, because it’s based on the ‘light’ themes of the game – and because rifling would just be totally obvious. And, now you mention it, with that circle in the middle and the lines coming out, it does look quite a lot like a sun. Maybe this life-long art director at a major triple-A studio has a point.
For more razor-sharp reporting such as this from yours truly, Poulsen also spoke about equally serious topics, including the studio opting not to use generative AI on 007: First Light, and what it’s been like working with Amazon MGM without a settled live-action Bond under way. Plus, of course, there’s our big 007: First light hands-on preview to sink your teeth into too. I promise I took those ones much more seriously.
