As Sony gears up for PlayStation VR and its incoming 4K-capable PS4 Pro, it looks like the old plug-and-play days of consoles are on the way out, with devoted game machines feeling more and more like lesser PCs with each passing iteration.
Solidifying that point, you can now preorder a gaming keyboard and mouse specifically designed for PC-style controls on your PlayStation.
Enter the Tactical Assault Commander Pro - a combination mechanical keyboard and 3200 DPI optical mouse designed to play any game on your PS3, PS4 and PC.
The TAC Pro is made by peripheral peddler Hori, best known for its controllers - most commonly the personal arcade sticks used at professional fighting game tournaments.
The TAC Pro also comes with a long list of features not uncommon in computer gear but rarely seen on consoles, such as fully customizable key mappings with up to three saved profiles, sensitivity and acceleration settings, and even a special "Snipe" button that allows for added precision with a single button press.
PS4 or PC-4?
While thumbsticks and trigger buttons are perfectly fine for most games, few can produce better accuracy and speed aiming in a first-person shooter with a controller compared to the keyboard-and-mouse combo used on PCs.
For this reason, the TAC Pro could become a sudden must-have for the professional crowd - offering a very real hardware advantage when playing any twitchy, accuracy-heavy game. *cough*Overwatch*cough*Call of Duty*cough*
That said, one real disadvantage of the TAC Pro is something all PC players might've already guessed: playing with this kind of setup requires a desk or some other surface to rest the keyboard and mouse.
A major draw of consoles - and what allows them to stay competitive with PCs - is that 'reclining on the couch' comfort factor. Having to commit your console play to a desk top could just make players want to spring for a desktop.
But hey, what do we know? The 17-year-old Dreamcast had a keyboard and mouse, so maybe we're just over-analyzing things.
The eager gamer can preorder the TAC Pro now, with the controller set to release November 1. The extra precision will take some extra pay, as the mouse-and-keyboard combo cost $149 (about £129/AU$195) - the same price as Microsoft's Elite premium controller for the Xbox One and Windows.
