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.
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.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