Playden

Dev blog

Play with up to four controllers

Until now, only one DualSense reached a game, so the second player had nothing to do. Starting at Playden 0.10.0, up to four people can play on one PS5, each with their own controller.

DOOM in four-way split screen on a PS5. Each player looks at a different part of the level, and the top-left player is firing.
DOOM with four players. Each controller moves only its own view.

There’s no setting to turn on. Each controller only needs its own PS5 user.

Start a game with friends

  1. Give each controller a user

    Turn on the controller and press its PS button. On “Who’s using this controller?”, choose a user, or choose Add User to sign someone in. A guest works too.

    The PS5 screen titled Who's using this controller?, with Add User and two signed-in users, each with a controller number.

  2. Start the game from the first controller

    Do this after all the controllers are on, because some games only look for controllers when they start. If the game’s page says “Kit update first”, press Play and Playden updates the game’s runtime, the part that runs Windows games.

  3. Join in the game

    Each player joins the way that game asks. In DOOM, go to Multiplayer, then Local, and each player presses Options.

    DOOM's Add Players screen showing four of eight current players.

What we’ve tested

We tested these on our dev console, using software controllers rather than four real DualSense controllers:

  • Four players: DOOM + DOOM II.
  • Two players: Cuphead, Metal Slug 3 and Bread & Fred.

Please try your own couch games, and tell us how they went on Discord. People have asked about Unrailed!, Lost Castle, Blur and Overcooked.

See PlayStation buttons in your games

Some games show PlayStation buttons when they see a PlayStation controller. To try it, go to Game settings › Controller and choose PlayStation controller. It works with several players too.

The same screen in both modes

The setting changes only what the game sees. Your DualSense stays the same.

A close-up of DOOM's Add Players screen with Cross, Circle and Options button prompts.
PlayStation controller
A close-up of the same DOOM screen with A, B and Xbox menu button prompts.
Xbox controller
Game settings open at the Controller list for DOOM + DOOM II, with Xbox controller, PlayStation controller and Keyboard and mouse mapping.

Xbox controller stays the default, because games that only read Xbox controllers don’t see a PlayStation one. Some games also keep their own button letters in either mode, as Bread & Fred does.

Thanks

Thanks to 7tg for the four-controller work in prospero-win, the compatibility layer Playden uses, and to agustt, Chelwins and Hero420m for asking for this. See you on Discord.