{"id":1910994,"date":"2026-04-30T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1910994"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:30:00","slug":"that-weird-007-first-light-ps5-controller-design-is-deliberate-ioi-art-director-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1910994","title":{"rendered":"That weird 007: First Light PS5 controller design is deliberate, IOI art director explains"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/007-first-light\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      007 First Light<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">That weird 007: First Light PS5 controller design is deliberate, IOI art director explains<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not a straight-up gun barrel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/bond-controller.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"007: First Light limited edition controller, in gold with straight lines eminating from a central, circular 007 Logo, against a blue background\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"bond-controller.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>IOI \/ Eurogamer<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Chris Tapsell avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1521645531.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Chris Tapsell avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"1521645531.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/chris-tapsell\">Chris Tapsell<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Deputy Editorial Director<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-04-30T15:30:00+00:00\">April 30, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-weird-ps5-controller-design-deliberate?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          2 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"24adb1e6-72cb-4443-8b19-1f32869e160f\" data-name=\"007 First Light\" data-follow-text=\"Follow 007 First Light\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following 007 First Light\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow 007 First Light\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following 007 First Light\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow 007 First Light\" title=\"Follow 007 First Light\"><br \/>\n  Follow 007 First Light<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Remember a couple of weeks ago when the internet got unusually annoyed (or maybe not that unusually) about the design of 007: First Light&#8217;s limited edition DualSense PS5 controller?<\/p>\n<p>Well, sorry to remind you if you didn&#8217;t. In brief: developer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/companies\/io-interactive\">IO Interactive<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-ps5-controller-design\">revealed a fancy controller earlier this month<\/a>, featuring a gold-all-over paint job and a central 007 motif, with lines reaching out from a central circle.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"007 First Light - Official Rules of Spycraft Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DpfIFFt30HM?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/DpfIFFt30HM\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">007 First Light &#8211; Official Rules of Spycraft Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Here&#8217;s First Light&#8217;s Rules of Spycraft trailer.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DpfIFFt30HM\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The pushback was immediate and enjoyably ridiculous. &#8220;Stop getting Bond wrong!&#8221; yelped reddit user SickSlashHappy at the time, while LordMegamad, in a bout of nominative determinism, said &#8220;The idea of a 007-themed controller, with a design inspired by the inside of a barrel, <em>not<\/em> referencing the 007 intro sequence stretches my credulity a bit too far lol&#8221; &#8211; at least they added the lol.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the issue itself is that the controller&#8217;s lines, jutting out from that central circle, are <em>straight<\/em>. But if the controller was meant to be referencing the iconic opening sequence of Bond &#8211; where he turns, silhouetted, to point his pistol and fire at the camera &#8211; then the lines should in fact be <em>curved<\/em>, in a spiral shape representing the rifling of a gun&#8217;s barrel (which we&#8217;re meant to be looking down towards Bond, of course).<\/p>\n<p>Speculation was rife, or at least technically present, as to what might have been the reasoning for doing straight lines rather than spiralled ones to represent rifling. And now I&#8217;ve troubled poor Rasmus Poulsen, art director on 007: First Light, about the design during a recent interview &#8211; from which you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-preview-james-bond-hands-on-interview\">read much more in our big 007: First Light hands-on preview<\/a>. Poulsen, notably, was also the man behind the PlayStation blog post written for the controller&#8217;s reveal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The thing about the straight lines is everybody can do just a gun barrel, right?&#8221; Poulsen told me. &#8220;But in that sense, I think it&#8217;s actually very telling that it&#8217;s not a straight-up gun barrel, because that is an icon of the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t actually anywhere,&#8221; he continued, alluding to the fact you don&#8217;t actually see rifling around in the real world (unless you have a habit of staring down gun barrels, of course), or within the actual Bond films themselves beyond the introduction. &#8220;I mean, it&#8217;s inside every weapon, of course &#8211; but now I&#8217;m getting ahead of myself.&#8221; He pauses.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we were trying to do with that was reference more how the UI of the game feels. So rather than simply making a franchise stamp, it relates to our product, in the sense that it has that UI sense &#8211; and then it has more of a, dare I say, &#8216;Sun&#8217; flavour, referring back to the title. And you&#8217;ve seen the title sequence.&#8221; I have, and it is very nice, and does include lots of light rays &#8211; rays which travel, of course, in straight lines. &#8220;So there&#8217;s some things about light and shadow that we wanted to play with.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So there you have it. The 007: First Light limited edition controller is supposed to look like that, because it&#8217;s based on the &#8216;light&#8217; themes of the game &#8211; and because rifling would just be totally obvious. And, now you mention it, with that circle in the middle and the lines coming out, it does look quite a lot like a sun. Maybe this life-long art director at a major triple-A studio has a point.<\/p>\n<p>For more razor-sharp reporting such as this from yours truly, Poulsen also spoke about equally serious topics, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-dev-not-using-gen-ai-beware-utopia-bond-theme\">studio opting not to use generative AI<\/a> on 007: First Light, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-dev-james-bond-working-with-amazon-mgm-surprisingly-straightforward\">what it&#8217;s been like working with Amazon MGM<\/a> without a settled live-action Bond under way. Plus, of course, there&#8217;s our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-preview-james-bond-hands-on-interview\">big 007: First light hands-on preview<\/a> to sink your teeth into too. I promise I took those ones much more seriously.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Remember a couple of weeks ago when the internet got unusually annoyed (or maybe not that unusually) about the design of 007: First Light&#8217;s limited edition DualSense PS5 controller?<\/p>\n<p>Well, sorry to remind you if you didn&#8217;t. In brief: developer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/companies\/io-interactive\">IO Interactive<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-ps5-controller-design\">revealed a fancy controller earlier this month<\/a>, featuring a gold-all-over paint job and a central 007 motif, with lines reaching out from a central circle.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"007 First Light - Official Rules of Spycraft Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DpfIFFt30HM?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/DpfIFFt30HM\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">007 First Light &#8211; Official Rules of Spycraft Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Here&#8217;s First Light&#8217;s Rules of Spycraft trailer.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DpfIFFt30HM\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The pushback was immediate and enjoyably ridiculous. &#8220;Stop getting Bond wrong!&#8221; yelped reddit user SickSlashHappy at the time, while LordMegamad, in a bout of nominative determinism, said &#8220;The idea of a 007-themed controller, with a design inspired by the inside of a barrel, <em>not<\/em> referencing the 007 intro sequence stretches my credulity a bit too far lol&#8221; &#8211; at least they added the lol.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the issue itself is that the controller&#8217;s lines, jutting out from that central circle, are <em>straight<\/em>. But if the controller was meant to be referencing the iconic opening sequence of Bond &#8211; where he turns, silhouetted, to point his pistol and fire at the camera &#8211; then the lines should in fact be <em>curved<\/em>, in a spiral shape representing the rifling of a gun&#8217;s barrel (which we&#8217;re meant to be looking down towards Bond, of course).<\/p>\n<p>Speculation was rife, or at least technically present, as to what might have been the reasoning for doing straight lines rather than spiralled ones to represent rifling. And now I&#8217;ve troubled poor Rasmus Poulsen, art director on 007: First Light, about the design during a recent interview &#8211; from which you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-preview-james-bond-hands-on-interview\">read much more in our big 007: First Light hands-on preview<\/a>. Poulsen, notably, was also the man behind the PlayStation blog post written for the controller&#8217;s reveal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The thing about the straight lines is everybody can do just a gun barrel, right?&#8221; Poulsen told me. &#8220;But in that sense, I think it&#8217;s actually very telling that it&#8217;s not a straight-up gun barrel, because that is an icon of the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t actually anywhere,&#8221; he continued, alluding to the fact you don&#8217;t actually see rifling around in the real world (unless you have a habit of staring down gun barrels, of course), or within the actual Bond films themselves beyond the introduction. &#8220;I mean, it&#8217;s inside every weapon, of course &#8211; but now I&#8217;m getting ahead of myself.&#8221; He pauses.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we were trying to do with that was reference more how the UI of the game feels. So rather than simply making a franchise stamp, it relates to our product, in the sense that it has that UI sense &#8211; and then it has more of a, dare I say, &#8216;Sun&#8217; flavour, referring back to the title. And you&#8217;ve seen the title sequence.&#8221; I have, and it is very nice, and does include lots of light rays &#8211; rays which travel, of course, in straight lines. &#8220;So there&#8217;s some things about light and shadow that we wanted to play with.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So there you have it. The 007: First Light limited edition controller is supposed to look like that, because it&#8217;s based on the &#8216;light&#8217; themes of the game &#8211; and because rifling would just be totally obvious. And, now you mention it, with that circle in the middle and the lines coming out, it does look quite a lot like a sun. Maybe this life-long art director at a major triple-A studio has a point.<\/p>\n<p>For more razor-sharp reporting such as this from yours truly, Poulsen also spoke about equally serious topics, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-dev-not-using-gen-ai-beware-utopia-bond-theme\">studio opting not to use generative AI<\/a> on 007: First Light, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-dev-james-bond-working-with-amazon-mgm-surprisingly-straightforward\">what it&#8217;s been like working with Amazon MGM<\/a> without a settled live-action Bond under way. Plus, of course, there&#8217;s our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/007-first-light-preview-james-bond-hands-on-interview\">big 007: First light hands-on preview<\/a> to sink your teeth into too. I promise I took those ones much more seriously.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News 007 First Light That weird 007: First Light PS5 controller design is deliberate, IOI art director explains &#8220;It&#8217;s not a straight-up gun barrel.&#8221; Image credit: IOI \/ Eurogamer News by Chris Tapsell Deputy Editorial Director Published on April 30, 2026 2 comments Follow 007 First Light Remember a couple of weeks ago when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1910994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1910994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1910994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1910994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1910994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}