Already mentioned by Sony but I haven't heard any discussion of this. It does seem like yet another effective way of courting developers. Nintendo's 2nd screen doesn't seem to be making any waves. The touchpad seems like a much safer option. Porting popular mobile games to PS4 is always good.

how does the touchpad on the controller work? like a touchpad on a laptop????
i dont see the point of it very much to be honest....
i thought the back of the vita works better if use properly

I doubt that the touchpad on the PS4's controller will help court mobile developers. If it was a touch screen it might, but a touch pad's only real uses are web browsing and maybe quicktime events.

I'm going wait-and-see on this. I love the idea but it's going to depend on how it's implemented. Touchpads are awesome and it could potentially be just as good as a touchscreen for most applications, only at a cheaper cost and without having to look away from the television. It's just going to depend on how it's used by developers and if it's easy and intuitive for gamers.

If you can play "touch" games in a comfortable way and have better control of the UI then it will be an excellent addition.

No they created playstation mobile for that.. Ow wait that is flopping hard.. Who knew that nobody wants to make games for framework thats running on top of android.. On a few selected devices.. Which cuts the userbase to maybe 5%..

Hmmm i actually just think the touchpad will be decent for browsing the net and other PC/tablet like functions but not really for games. Mobile games on smartphones are so well adapted to full multitouch touch screens that a touchpad can't really emulate that experience properly.

A touchpad will not work the same way as a touch screen. Your point data from your finger touching it is not locked to a certain location when using a touchpad. When using a touch screen, however, you know when and where your finger is touching.

Example: You use your laptop touchpad to move your mouse on the screen. It may take multiple swipes to move your mouse to where you want it to "click". But with a touch screen, you simply touch that one spot and be done. A touchpad would work no differently than using your regular controller analog sticks for movement. It is meant to be a way to guide something or for gesture controls, not for precise touch controls of a touch screen.

If anything, the Wii U's tablet would make a much better porting platform. That and the Wii U's specs would more closely represent the capabilities of modern smartphones rather than full blown PS4/720 specs.

No it won't. The touchpad looks to be about the same as touchpad s on laptops. And those don't really work that great with games. The best I can see this used for is web browsing and menu browsing.

PSM is not flopping hard. In fact this touchpad would allow PSM to natively run on PS4.

Anyway from what they have told us the touchpad is most prominent during menus. However as I'll bring up for the 7th time, Ouya.

Sure people are finally seeing that Ouya won't set the world on fire but mobile developers really like it. Having the same touchpad on PS4 is a huge incentive to get these guys to port their work.

No way.  A touchpad would blow stick control away for precise movement.  It's not even in the same area code for that.

No, it's not the same as a touchpad, but it will definitely be better for some functions.  Will developers use it when they port over certain games?  I don't know.  We'll have to see about that.