Sony details PlayStation controller with buttons that get squishier and harder
Haptics a la David Cronenberg
Sony may have plans to go way beyond the PlayStation 5’s DualSense tech, with gamepad buttons that can become harder and softer to the touch.
It sounds mad, but comes with a caveat. This is not a gamepad we expect to see any time soon as it’s a design outlined in a patent, not a product announcement.
But it is pretty wild regardless.
It uses what’s called a magneto-viscoelastic elastomer, a rubber-like material that can become harder or softer depending on how a magnetic field is applied.
This could potentially be adjusted to personal preference, mirroring how some gamepads have customisable triggers. Or it could reflect something in the game itself, which is a more interesting exploitation of this technology.
The most dynamic example discussed in the filing is of a squishy button hardening as the player’s finger is depressing it, in order to reflect the player character being grabbed by an enemy. Creepy stuff.
Sony’s filing also describes how you could achieve a similar effect using “fluid-filled” membranes.
It’s a completely different kind of techy feedback to what you get in a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller, which uses haptic motors to make the triggers feel softer or harder. The two forms of feedback are kinda related in effect, then, just not so much in how those effects are achieved.
This patent filing was submitted back in 2024, but wasn’t published until 2026.
We’d love to see this kind of next-generation gamepad tech become a reality, but tech giants publish loads of these patents, and heaps of them never actually amount to anything.
And even if does become a reality we’d still be facing the same eye-rolling thing that holds back DualSense — that barely any games really make proper use of this awesome haptic potential.
What’s actually next for PlayStation hardware? A wireless fight stick is coming in August, called the FlexStrike. Out in the rumour sphere, Sony is also reportedly working on a handheld, and one that can actually play games rather than simply streaming them like the PlayStation Portal.
