What if there was a controller with no buttons where players could fix the buttons wherever and however they wanted? Well, it seems Sony is thinking along that line too, according to a new controller patent it obtained in the United States.
The patent was filed on February 13, 2023, but was approved on January 27, 2026. According to the patent description and available diagram, the controller would have a large touchscreen that would cover the entire area where the D-pad and action buttons would normally be.
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The new design is expected to allow players to customize the position of the D-pad and action buttons to best suit their playstyle. The idea is also great for making controllers more accessible.
“Often controllers adhere to a similar control interface of having a directional pad on one side of the controller and buttons on the other side of the controller,” read the patent description.
“One of the drawbacks of existing designs may be the fixed configuration. By way of example, a fixed layout may be too small, or too large, for a user. Similarly, a fixed layout may not be comfortable to a user. Manufacturers typically do not veer from layout or controller size to reduce cost. As result, controllers may include button configurations for hand sizes that do not accommodate all players.
“There exists a desire for game controllers to allow for different configurations, and accommodate hand sizes without having to customize or manufacture controller size. Another drawback of conventional controllers may be the fixed nature of input controls. For example, a controller only has enough space to include a directional pad and joystick, and each element is usually located in a different location.”
Potential problem with a touchscreen controller that Sony must fix
The major challenge with a touchscreen controller is accidental key entry. In the 90s, Turbo Touch 360, a third-party controller, launched for 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. The controller replaced the D-pad with a touch pad to ease the stress on the player’s thumb.
However, players accidentally found themselves moving their characters when their thumb was naturally resting on the touch pad. The same issue is all too familiar for PC gamers who play on laptops.
Perhaps, Sony already anticipates this issue because somewhere in the patent, it was mentioned that the touchscreen would have a pressure and heat sensor to “detect condition of the input surface”.
Every new PlayStation controller has been an evolution of the previous. For example, the PS3 controller brought the Sixaxis motion-sensing technology, which featured 3-axis gyroscopes and accelerometers to track movements in six degrees of freedom.
A touchpad was added to the PS4 controller, which can function as a mouse on PC, while the DualSense controller of the PS5 introduced haptic feedback and dynamic triggers.
Technology has grown since the days of the Turbo Touch 360. With the help of AI, sensors can better interpret inputs to avoid unintended actions. However, it will be interesting to see how Sony would pull it off. And that is a big IF, because not all patents make it to products.
