A Sony patent has been spotted in the wild that suggests that the company is working on a controller aimed at smartphones. The design of its device seems similar to that of the DualShock controller but it has a slot in the middle to house the phone.
Spotted by VGA, this patent has been filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Japanese division. Since only the controller is part of the patent, it can be inferred that the slot in the middle can be used to house the smartphone.
As per the source, the patent filing mentions “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.”
Current PlayStation controllers are all compatible with smartphones via Bluetooth. However, the actual launch of such a product would signal a big push by Sony into the mobile gaming space.
Back in April, a job listing for Head of Mobile, PlayStation Studios, SIE was discovered, starting speculations about Sony’s next big step. “You will be responsible for building and scaling a team of mobile leaders and will serve as the Head of this new business unit within PlayStation Studios,” it had read.
The following month, Sony confirmed its plans saying, “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.”
At the moment, WipEout Rush is the only big PlayStation title that has been confirmed for a mobile release. It’s supposed to hit Android and iPhone early next year.