The next industry controller refresh should focus on relocating the l3 and r3 buttons at minimal.

[HBC_XL]

Bring back the GOAT Saturn controller design and add modern-style triggers behind L1/R1//Lb/Rb IMO.

It keeps the top of the controller the same, eliminates the "click sticks", are naturally reachable by the thumb with a grip everyone is accustomed to, and as a bonus, benefits fighting games.

 

[giancarlo123x]

But I like where they are

 

[TsuWave]

way too used to them on sticks. a change would be horrible

 

[KamenRiderEra]

The problem is the usage. Developers should not bind them in the most used actions. Sprint for example, awful option. I always rebind to LB/L1. The L3/R3 are good enough if the function is less used.

 

[MarcelloF]

No, that looks terrible. Clicking sticks is perfectly fine and far preferable to that.

 

[I_love_potatoes]

Hot take: L3 and R3 are perfect where they are, and controllers should add L4 and R4 which are activated by pulling the sticks up instead of pushing them in.

Click to shrink...

Then after that we make it so we can rotate the grip part of the stick like an actual steering wheel, so when we play racing games we can have a mini-wheel.

 

[Kyoufu]

L3 and R3 are great buttons.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

I feel like this would cause massive problems for Backwards compatibility.

Click to shrink...

I don't see how. They're just buttons. Moving them wouldn't be a problem in most, likely all, cases.

There's a reason a lot of us who have moved to using back buttons and paddles remap the stick buttons to the paddles: they're more comfortable and, honestly, intuitive to use, than literally pressing your control stick into the controller. I played through all of Dread using the 8bitdo Pro 2 with the stick buttons mapped to the rear buttons and it was so nice not having to press in just for those simple functions.

 

[mute]

They should but I wonder if the stick part manufacturers could veto that idea and just keep selling their existing shitty parts.

 

[LetalisAmare]

The Razer chroma V2 has an extra set of shoulder buttons. It's great and I much prefer that to paddles.

 

[TheMadTitan]

Throw them on the back or the sides like that one Scuf PS4 controller.

 

[bwahhhhh]

 

[RichieMythic]

The day I never have to click in a stick ever again is a blessed day indeed

 

[SweetBellic]

I'm generally into more buttons, not fewer. Though I've personally never had an issue with R3 and L3.

 

[spad3]

I don't mind L3/R3. I'll take both of them AND back paddles. Give me all the inputs for more mappable functions in-game.

 

[LAA]

Wouldn't go as far as to say I hate their current positions, but on my elite controller and any controller with paddles, I map them to one of them.
Think I'd rather just have the option to map them somewhere else than remove the button from the sticks altogether.
If they contribute to stick drifting/degradation though, at the very least I hope they improve it.

 

[hydro94530]

I like them right where they are so I hope they stay.

 

[Kyle Cross]

If they want to make this an optional thing for people who want it, sure. But I'm not unlearning clicking in the sticks so don't take it away.

 

[HellofaMouse]

keep l3r3, but add l4r4 as back pedals. maybe even l5r5

 

[Ringten]

I like L3 and R3

 

[TheWildCard]

Isn't the point of L3/R3 that it's another input without needing more buttons? I don't mind back paddles but L3/R3 are fine as is, they just shouldn't be used beyond an occasional toggle.

 

[truncated_pachyderm]

No thanks. Programmable paddles are cool but I think game devs need to do the work of simplifying their inputs. If players are annoyed at pressing L3 and R3 the game is doing it wrong.

 

[flaxknuckles]

L3 and R3 are fine for everything but sprinting.

 

[GTAce]

We need more buttons and remapping options for accessibility reasons alone.
Fuck L3 & R3.

 

[headspawn]

They should for having to click for functions you use a lot in a game, and not to mention holding them down for that function. Me just spitballing, if they don't do paddles. How about spliting the r1 and l1 buttons and put them l3 and r3 buttons up there. The GPD Win 2 does this and Iove it

Click to shrink...

How about that plus standardized back button/paddles? I'd like to live in that world.

Developers that have "hold"-L3/R3 in their games, I can only assume they were bullied as a child and do that as a form of revenge.

 

[liquiddragon]

Controllers should have a dedicated run button. L3 for run is a crime.

 

[Wolven Hammer]

I like the stick click, I hate the stick drift.

 

[Rodney McKay]

I'm so happy with the Steam Deck's 4 rear buttons.

Literally every game I've played on it I remap the R3/L3 to be the top rear buttons and it saves my thumbs so much stress.

I wouldn't mind R3/L3 buttons so much of they made the pressure needed to click them in much less, but then I'm sure people would have way more issues accidentally clicking them in if it required less pressure.

 

[Dolce]

see, the thing is, if you removed them, eventually a manufacturer is gonna be like "hmm we have these sticks... why not make them a button, too?" and we'll be back where we started.

 

[Tapiozona]

All controllers should have paddles or buttons on the back vs L3, R3.

The Xbox elite controller is as close to a perfect controller you can get, albeit a tad heavy. If they added gyroscopic aiming it's be 100% perfect

 

[Palette Swap]

Put them in the same place as these Xbox Elite palettes.

 

[CupOfDoom]

L3/R3 suck. Any option to get rid of them is for the better.

 

[Fadewise]

I know I already said it once in this thread, but wanting to waste a paddle/back button on L3/R3 just seem silly to me. Use them for the face buttons, use them for the d-pad, the buttons that you otherwise need to remove your thumbs from the sticks to use. That being said, the real solution, as always, is for extensible action based button mapping like Steam Input and then just throw as many buttons out there as people will tolerate. Options are better.

 

[Hoggle]

Agreed. I hate L3.

I'm actually fine with sticks as buttons if the devs don't require I push one every few seconds, but L3 to sprint has to go.

It's also a worse issue on Xbox as the left stick being higher means you can't press straight down as easily. I just map sprint a back paddle now (the Elite controller 3 needs more buttons) so I can have four face buttons and L3 mapped to paddles.

 

[fiendcode]

I'd welcome 6 face buttons back too.

 

[nihilence]

Would moving L3 and R3 fix drift?

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

I h-a-t-e clicking the sticks. It should be every console manufacturer's goal to relocate those buttons as paddles.

 

[FinFunnels]

L3/R3 can die in a fire

 

[overthewaves]

I've convinced myself that the L3 and R3 buttons have caused me to get stick drift on my controllers

 

[Swearing.circle]

I like clicking sticks. Always felt super intuitive to me and I much prefer it over holding a shoulder button to run.

 

[Faddy]

The real crime was calling them L3 and R3.

 

[Zok310]

I would not touch the triggers or add to the tigger area. If anything add them to the back of the controllers becasue thats where you have 6 fingers hanging off the back doing nothing (middle, ring and pinky) for most players.

 

[sanityislost]

Never really seen the R/L 3 buttons as an issue for me, been using them since the dualshock on the PS1. I would be up for the paddles or whatever on the back but that would be more for buttons on the right so I dont need to take my thumb off the right stick. R/L 3 would still be able to be used, so sounds like a win win for me.

 

[MZZ]

I am used to them now but I agree. They're the most unintuitive buttons on modern controllers. Back pedals/buttons should replace it.

 

[uuddrlrl]

The real crime was calling them L3 and R3.

Click to shrink...

Agreed. They should have been called L0 and R0 (zeroes), if they're not going to be on the "shoulders" like R1, R2, L1 and L2.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

I bought a cheap 30 dollar Xbox/PC controller at Walmart that has two small programmable buttons on the grips whe to use on my PC. First thing I did was replace the clickable sticks with them and it's great.

It's such a cheap and easy addition to controllers compared to full on trigger paddles, instead we get next to useless touchpads and capture buttons. Why?

 

[Veldin]

More than four shoulder buttons would be hell on my fingers especially when it's a game where you use those often. I'll take clickable sticks over that anytime.

 

[Akela]

Gonna be bold and say that I think controllers could do with having less buttons. L3/R3 are good candidates for removal, I think devs could figure out alternative for those actions. Potentially R1+R2 and L1+L2 could be combined into two large triggers that serve both actions based on pressure sensitivity.

To be honest I kinda feel like the analog nature of analog sticks aren't really used much. In an ideal world you wouldn't have to map run to L3 because you can do that action simply by moving the stick to the very edge, push it halfway to get a regular jog and a slight push for walk. Maybe "adaptive sticks" which work similarly to the PS5's adaptive triggers could help, where pushing to stick all the way to the edge requires a certain level of force?

Ultimately I suppose issues with backwards compatibility and 3rd party development makes it difficult for console makers to make radical changes to controller layouts, like they once did in the past. Even Nintendo's JoyCons are surprisingly conventional outside of the split design.

 

[Mesoian]

Paddles and Gyro.

That's all I want.

 

[emperor bohe]

I don't hate clicking the sticks but it's probably because I have like 20 years of muscle memory at this point