Sony Patent Reveals Temperature-Changing PlayStation Controller

Sony's DualSense controller for the PlayStation 5 is already an impressive piece of technology, but the company is considering something unusual for its next version. A patent filing reveals Sony's interest in designing a controller from an elastically deformable material that can change shape and temperature in response to gameplay.

The patent, initially spotted by Exputer, describes several ways the proposed controller could enhance the gaming experience. Those deformable areas would detect user input when twisted, rubbed, or otherwise finagled with. That opens up gameplay integrations in the same way accelerometers have.

There's another twist in the twistable controller. The patent suggests the malleable areas could also have a thermoelectric pump, sometimes called a Peltier element. This would allow the controller to change its surface temperature in response to either manipulating the flexible material or what's happening in a game. For instance, you enter a room on fire, and the controller gets hotter. Dive into an icy river, and it gets cold.

Patents are just ideas—like most large companies, Sony files plenty of patents that never result in a real product. That said, the ideas in this filing align with how Sony has been advancing its controller design. Microsoft's latest Xbox controllers are slightly better versions of the gamepads it sold alongside last-gen game consoles. They even look almost indistinguishable. Sony, however, swung for the fences with the DualSense, which has big, powerful haptic vibration motors and triggers with adjustable resistance. These features can make games more immersive, and adding temperature control seems like a logical next step.

This patent illustration shows where the maleable, temperature-chaging material might be positioned. Credit: Sony/WIPO

There's one big problem standing in Sony's way: price. The DualSense controller is already spendy at $70 with little in the way of sales, and Microsoft's controller regularly retails for closer to $50. Sony's current model also has much poorer battery life than the Xbox controller, and temperature-changing surfaces use a lot of power. If Sony adapts technology from this patent for a future controller, it probably won't be for a few years. Still, it could give Nintendo a run for its money in the gimmicky controller arena.