Sony patent describes joystick whose buttons can harden as you play

Sony continues to file unusual controller patents, many of which never leave the filing cabinet and serve mainly as legal protection. The company’s latest published patent is shaped like a conventional gaming joystick and describes an "operation member" meant to receive input from a user.

The patent says the device includes a contact part on the surface of the operation member that receives a force applied by the user, and a hardness control unit that changes the hardness of that contact part. The application was filed in November 2024 and published in May under the title Operation Device, Information Processing Apparatus, Control Method Thereof, and Program.

Far from being purely a novelty, the filing could point to future controller ideas rather than an immediate product. One plausible direction is an evolution of DualSense-style haptics, applying adaptive trigger resistance to individual buttons to alter actuation during specific moments in a game.

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