Hasta La Gadget!

Sony, which manufactures the PlayStation 3 game console and the PSPGo handheld, has patented an LCD-based “universal controller” that could emulate the look and function of third-party controllers.

Interestingly, Sony does not try to hide the fact that it could use the patent, at least theoretically, to emulate controllers from its competitors.

“This document describes an adaptable or universal game controller
which can be used to emulate the controllers of popular game
consoles,
such as, without limitation, the PlayStation. made by Sony, a
controller made by Nintendo, X-box game controllers made by
Microsoft, Amiga CD-32 controllers, Atari Jaguar controllers,
Gravis Gamepad controllers, Sega controllers, and Turbographics
controllers,” the patent reads.

The controller is similar in design to LCD-based remote controls from Philips and Harmony (shown), in which configurable software “buttons” on a LCD display replace discrete keys. In that sense, I can see the technology come to market.

But the problem of emulating a third-party controller becomes much more problematic when third-party interfaces and control mechanisms enter to it. I think of it in the context of a microprocessor bus license: even if a company doesn’t want to clone an Intel microprocessor, the technology that governs how Intel’s chip connects to an associated chipset is also owned by Intel; Nvidia, for example, has found this hurdle difficult to overcome. I would suspect that Microsoft and Nintendo would fiercely defend their technology if Sony ever tried to market one of their controllers via software emulation.