Bandai Namco general manager Katsuhiro Harada talked about the rise of players using pads in fighting games and FPS in an interview with Famitsu.
Check the tidbit from the interview:
Katsuhiro Harada: “I like FPS games, I started playing FPS on PC around the time the first Doom was out. FPS games weren’t out for consoles yet, so PC gamers played using mouse and keyboard. You see, FPS games themselves were specially made for mouse & keyboard.
However, once games from the FPS genre started to appear on consoles, we started playing them using analog sticks on pads. People on the Internet would say ‘FPS with a controller lolololol’ and that’s how I felt about it too. I used to think ‘How do you even play FPS games with a controller?’ But everybody adapted, and we started seeing more that are good even using pads.”
Famitsu:Â Then controllers gradually became the majority.
Katsuhiro Harada: “If we’re going by player numbers then controllers are definitely the majority. You can’t ignore the feel of controllers these days for FPS games.
Even for fighting games, there are more players who play on pad instead of a stick. You can go to any fighting game tournament and you’d see a bunch of players with controllers. Sticks stand out more because pro players use them and such, but there are overwhelmingly more players on pad.
Famitsu:Â Especially in the preliminary stages, there really are many pad players.
Katsuhiro Harada: “Exactly. And they’re even playing games like Fortnite and PUBG on smartphones now. At first, I thought to myself ‘How do you play on a smartphone?’ but it was unexpectedly simple when I tried it. Nowadays if you go on about ‘Mouse-only for FPS/TPS’ then you’d probably be treated as an elderly anywhere around the world. Probably.”
