Sony is trying to patent its Back Button Attachment accessory for the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4.
Back in 2019, the company launched a programmable button attachment that connects to the underside of the controller.
The gaming giant doesn’t give the patent a name and refers to it as an add-on with buttons that “may be mapped to controller buttons using customized button mapping pre-sets.” It also offers a few diagrams showing how it works.
Sony filed the patent in the U.S. in the summer of 2019 and internationally with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in June of 2020. With this in mind, this isn’t necessarily an indication that the accessory could be coming to the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller. For example, the gamepad in the diagram shows off what looks to be a DualShock 4, and it doesn’t describe or mention any of the features available with the more recent controller.
While there’s likely no correlation with this filing, Valve was recently fined $4 million USD (roughly $5 million CAD) related to its Steam Controller design due to a lawsuit from Scuf and Ironbug Inventions, which are subsidiaries of Corsair.
The PS4 Back Button Attachment is available for $39.99 CAD. It allows users to program any of the gamepad’s buttons to a back button. This is useful as it allows users to use the new triggers instead of moving their thumbs away from the joystick.
Image credit: World Intellectual Property Organization