The patent was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Japanese division and shows a PS4-esque controller with a screen in the centre. Only the controller is part of the patent, suggesting it would be used to slot a mobile screen in the centre. According to VGC, the patent describes “a left side grip portion and a right side grip portion gripped by the left and right hands of the user” as well as “a shaft portion that can be tilted by the user, and detect the tilting direction and tilting amount of the shaft portion.” PlayStation controllers are already compatible with mobile devices via Bluetooth, but this new patent would be in-line with third party controllers that bookend the mobile device. Earlier this year, Sony began a push into the mobile market. A job listing for Head of Mobile, PlayStation Studios, SIE, revealed plans to “focus on successfully adapting PlayStation’s most popular franchises for mobile”. Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, later confirmed: “We have been thinking about how players enjoy our content and have had some early success with experimenting with mobile games and apps to provide more choice to gamers. “Mobile is just one of the areas we are exploring to reach millions of gamers beyond our platforms. PlayStation has a huge catalog of diverse first-party IP that can transition to smartphone gaming and complement our AAA games or live service games. We are exploring the mobile market with some wonderful PlayStation franchises so please stay tuned.” WipEout Rush has already been confirmed for mobile devices, coming to iPhone and Android in early 2022.
