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Sony Could Be Working on a Customizable Controller With a Wii U-Style Screen

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

According to recently revealed patents, Sony has a new customizable controller in the works that features a “swappable, rotatable button cluster” and a “customizable touch interface.” For many gamers, these words conjure visions of the disastrous Wii U that has trapped games to this day. But these patents reveal that Sony has plans to make this new controller fair better than its Nintendo predecessor.

The patents reveal that the controller’s “customizable touch interface” refers to UI elements on the screen. In theory, players would be able to change certain visual elements on the screen, allowing for controls that players could tweak to their own personal style. This could also refer to customizable actions such as swiping in a certain direction to reload a weapon or use a special. It could even refer to allowing developers to alter the screen for various purposes, such as in Hideo Kojima's rumored Silent Hill entry.

The controller will also feature a “swappable, rotatable button cluster.” While it is not entirely clear what this could mean, it is clear that player customization appears to be the primary focus of this controller. The button cluster in question appears to be configurable in a number of ways. The implications of this are vague, but exciting. If the controller is too unwieldy for certain players to use, as was a complaint levied against the Wii U, some of its issues could be resolved simply by allowing players the freedom to customize their controls.

Sony-Patent-1.jpg
sony-patent-2.jpg
 

Dthomp

Member
Maybe try to make a ps5 controller with a better then 4 hour battery life before you worry about your newest failed peripheral please…

Maybe learn how to make more then 3 basic boring colors too while you’re at it.
 

Tommi84

Member
Maybe try to make a ps5 controller with a better then 4 hour battery life before you worry about your newest failed peripheral please…
hJtHL0s.jpg


Turn off all the gimmicks and you can easily have 7hours of gameplay. Still not enough? Plug in a powerbank while you're at it :D.

And it's 'than' not 'then'.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Diagram/drawing looks wierd. But it did make me wonder, just how cool would a sony or ms wii u controller with a 9" 1080p oled in it be to play games in any room. I mean I know the wii u did this but the range was like 6 feet. How about one that actually worked through the whole house?
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I wouldn't mind a duelsense Pro which has the touch pad changed to a touch screen + other premium features, like customisable paddles.

However I could see it being an issue if games start to require it.
 

NoviDon

Member
I wouldn't mind a duelsense Pro which has the touch pad changed to a touch screen + other premium features, like customisable paddles.

However I could see it being an issue if games start to require it.
its a luxury product that enhances the convenience of games, it wouldn't require it. Im sure they could do some cool things on it like stream other apps: netfix, hulu youtube, buy and download add ons and expansions on the fly, jump into parties without suspending the game, and of course like DS/WiiU have the map and other cluster off the main screen, go through the game menu and change loadouts/settings without pausing, etc.
 

BlackTron

Member
Sounds more like the touch pad on a PS4 controller that lets you map actions to different portions of the screen than a Wii U gamepad.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Maybe try to make a ps5 controller with a better then 4 hour battery life before you worry about your newest failed peripheral please…

Maybe learn how to make more then 3 basic boring colors too while you’re at it.

You’re must be defected. I have 2 and I have easily put in 6+ hours many times with games like Death Stranding etc. It way better than the PS4 controller
 

Bryank75

Banned
More ass ideas.... stop wasting money on stuff that nobody wants.

No cloud bullshit, no mobile bullshit and no PC ports.... and whatever mobile attachment crap this is....

Damn it!

kiefer sutherland president GIF by NETFLIX
 

Tschumi

Member
Sounds like a handheld with touch screen that can attach to TVs. Like a psp 2000 with touch screen, or a vita tv with touch screen
 

Dthomp

Member
You’re must be defected. I have 2 and I have easily put in 6+ hours many times with games like Death Stranding etc. It way better than the PS4 controller

That's fair, I was being slightly /s but forgot I need that in Sony posts if you aren't in full protect mode. I love Playstation brand, but I find the battery life even at 6-7 hours a massive step back after the PS3 controllers lasted days and not hours. You are right that it is much better then the 4, those were/are? the worst controllers I've ever had the pleasure of using, there was no quality control testing on those whatsoever, and I'm pretty sure out of the 7-8 that me and my wife own 4-5 of them have had bad stick drift issues within a year of use.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
That would be really cool. Hope that it could be used as a standed tv screen for when people can’t get access to the big tv, paired up with the wireless headphone it could be awesome
 

ksdixon

Member
Is this new? I thought we saw patents for a removeable touch screen in place of the touch pad, in the run up to the ps5 controller reveal?
 

Ryu Kaiba

Member
Maybe try to make a ps5 controller with a better then 4 hour battery life before you worry about your newest failed peripheral please…

Maybe learn how to make more then 3 basic boring colors too while you’re at it.
Sony makes the battery life bad on purpose so you can buy 2 controllers and a charging dock. Don't you just love rechargable lithium ion. Batchest /s
 

CamHostage

Member
Sony makes the battery life bad on purpose so you can buy 2 controllers and a charging dock. Don't you just love rechargable lithium ion. Batchest /s

The problem isn't the rechargeable lithium ion battery, those things are great. The problem is, Sony doesn't make them easy to replace, and will never offer a hotswap option for people who game well past recommended usage and kill the battery. MS did things better there with its Battery Pack, although the feel of the controller was always a little compromised with that (usually not noticeable, but they had to put the splits somewhere.)

You don't need 2 controllers if you play long, a simple cellphone charger Power Bank can juice your controller while you play and it's just a small cord running into your pocket. Or you can pick up one of these for less than $20.

51g6b6nxPxL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
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CamHostage

Member
As always, patents are not necessarily for products, sometimes they're just to stop trolls from getting in the way, but it would be interesting to see Sony do something with a screen on the controller some. Still like that original PS5 controller concept design somebody did.




Btw this sounds like Vita 2.0

Yeah, sort of.

It's a shame Sony could never sell cross-interactivity as a vital feature of Vita, because consoles and handhelds make great companions. You can take a game with you, you can have a micro-game offline of the original game and farm assets, you can do some unique play concepts of asynchronous multiplayer... you have two game players instead of just one, which is always nice.

Sony always designed its 'portables' for portability, which maybe isn't the way to go if they ever do a handheld game player again? Design it for comfort, and for being used around the house. Make it a controller first, then figure out how much it can be tweaked to work as an offline game player. Let it stream off the console (or the cloud) when you're gaming, hopefully give it a little extra hardware to play some self-contained PS1/PSP/Vita games. (Although if they could get the costs down, maybe even skip that step and have it just an all-tethered/online player? It's possible to make a $50 device that plays PS1 games these days, but they wouldn't want to confuse people that this was PSP 3.0 and then it's a letdown, as opposed to a PS5 Controller that also has a screen. No exclusive games, anymore; sad, but those days are past, maybe make it a lo-fi Android device to give it a bit of an offline library besides old PS games.) Design the next portable the other way around.

Like, I don't know if the ergo on this fan-design is great, but a 'handheld' with grip wings and the feel of a real controller but also a screen would be a cool PS5 accessory that would also have some portable appeal.

1093da0a4d118edeaf9de3b43786a47d.jpg
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
While they're at it, they could be making customizable side panels. They would make a KILLING off those.
And give up the big $ from people collecting controllers in all the different colours like some weird people do? Not a chance.

I’m not sure what the point of a controller with a touch screen display would be when it’s not there and mandatory from day 1. I just bought a Razer Kishi for xcloud streaming, something like that would be a better idea.
 
Another patent appears and confirms this theory. I really love the idea to use your smartphone as a second monitor for all the UI elements. Just give me a a complete UI-less TV Screen with the game and the possebillity to reload or use health potions with the touch screen. This is also a hudge opportunity to make complex RPG UIs more acessable for console players.

The WiiU had the potential to be THE MMORPG console, just imagine a WOW on it.
 
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