Nissan, Konami, and Sony have teamed up to turn a Qashqai crossover SUV into a very expensive PlayStation 4 controller — but not, however, to play a racing game. Instead, the vehicle will be used to play Pro Evolution Soccer 2016. Nissan has been teasing the project for a couple of weeks but it will finally be playable next week before the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League game in Malmö, Sweden.
Nissan turned an SUV into a PS4 controller to play a soccer game
As for how the controls are actually mapped across the Qashqai, here’s how Fortune describes it:
Players pass the ball with the brake pedal and shoot on goal with the gas pedal, controlling the direction of players with the steering wheel. The windshield washer lever handles cross passes, the phone button makes players sprint, and the turn signal is used to navigate up and down.
Which, as far as these kind of things go, honestly doesn’t sound too crazy to handle, unless Nissan has left all those primary functions intact and cross passes will be interrupted by the rubbery sound of wiper handles.
Using nontraditional controllers to play games has become something of a sport, especially in the age of YouTube and Twitch. Just look at the top YouTube search results referencing Dark Souls, a game that’s very difficult with even a normal gamepad:
That’s right, bongos. That’s an actual video that exists on the internet, created by someone without the use of special effects (spoiler: he actually does a really good job killing demons). As for the SUV controller, Nissan has posted a handful of well-polished clips chronicling the development process.
As you might’ve guessed, it’s not exactly an intuitive process. I bet it’d be great with Rocket League, though.
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