Xbox made waves not too long ago with the hyper-customizable Adaptive Controller that features remappable physical buttons, 19 3.5 mm jacks for additional accessories, and switchable profiles for different games and use cases. With its latest patent, Sony looks to at least be considering going in a different direction with its adaptive controller design. A new patent, spotted by Insider Gaming, details a controller design with virtually no physical inputs, where players can configure their own layouts—no more arguments about offset vs in-line thumb sticks—and the layouts could potentially adapt to the user’s needs.
Yeah nah, steam controllers were doing similar shit for dpads a decade ago. Even with indentations, it just wasn’t enough to actually feel where you were on the controller.
Unless they have some magic tech to deform the surface and also do the same fake click Apple does with their touch pads, this is going to suck massively.
You shouldn’t need to look at your controller, basically ever
Absolutely not. I hate mobile games for this exact reason. I can’t stand not feeling the edge or barrier of something. I need physical real buttons to know where my fingers need to go. You can’t rely on feel with touchscreens.
Physical buttons please.
Customizing the layout of what, exactly, if it doesn’t have buttons? 🤔
If it’s a touch screen type thing: Fuuuuuuck that noise. I have a Steam controller. It has similar buttons. They fucking suck. Same with modern phone touch screens. I want real, physical goddamn buttons.
Stream deck here…yeah I don’t like the touch pads-never did on laptops and it carried over.
Steam controller already can do that. They should not be granted a patent.
While we’re here, the xbox adaptive controller is pretty cool even if you don’t have any kind of issue. It can be customised with third party button pads and arcade sticks which you plug into the adaptive controller. Great for playing basic games. I read that it’s almost like a keyboard in a sense. It’s quite big and you can add a lot of buttons.
One of the best net public good products Microsoft ever released. I suspect it was personal project for someone at MS who had some pull to approve it.
I think the concept fits Microsoft mission - allowing people to connect with technology in different ways. That’s the name of the game. People whine about ai, but voice commands and ai assistants will be good for some people. No more screwing around with 10 point fonts on a 7 inch screen.
Apple products integrate with a lot of healthcare stuff, so it only makes sense if microsoft makes accessible products.
Imagine mashing your thumb against a hard flat surface for two hours. This is only doable if the controller is wrapped in something rubber-like, and some way of providing tactile button press feedback. In my opinion.
Contrary to most other responses here, I actually love steam deck touchpads. I can do absolutely anything with them, and I love that kind of customizability. As a secondary, optional input method, doing buttonless controller is fucking stupid.
And besides, how the hell can you patent something, that was already in use by someone else? o.0And besides, how the hell can you patent something, that was already in use by someone else? o.0
Nintendo lawyers: It’s actually quite easy, barely an inconvenience
The steam controller was a bit inferior to the steam deck control setup and used touch pads instead of buttons in a lot of layouts.
The steam deck (and new steam controller) layout is much better because it’s essentially touch pads added to a conventional controller layout
Agreed. Controllers evolves to solve problems with input methods from before. This would not do that.
