On December 26 2019, Sony had a patent for a new Playstation controller approved by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), although it's unclear which console this new controller will be for.
The newly patented controller looks almost identical in design to the current PS4 controller, the now-iconic DualShock 4, at least on the face of it, and all features remain largely the same apart from a missing PlayStation symbol below the analog sticks, and the fact that we can see the introduction of two new buttons on the rear of the device.
Although this patent may not be a final design, the two rear buttons lead us to believe that Sony will be following in Microsoft's footsteps with the Elite controller by having rear programmable buttons that will allow the player to customise the controller to suit their own play-style.
A side view image (see below) shows the placement of the rear buttons being directly behind the analog sticks, more like small triggers, a move which we've seen on controllers by Scuf and Razer (and the aforementioned Elite controller for Xbox) that allows players to respond more quickly than having to move their fingers from the face buttons to R1/R2.
One noticeable inclusion in this patent is that the controller will feature a micro-USB charging port, the same as the current PS4 controller - with reports that the PS5 controller will feature USB-C charging does this mean that the new controller will be for the current generation of consoles or are they just trying to remain secretive?
On the other hand, Sony may never release this controller and may have just patented it to solidify the design in case they decide to elaborate on the recently announced Back Button Attachment.
What are your thoughts on this design, and would you want to see this released?