The PS5's specs have been finally revealed in an official capacity. Not by Sony – although we'll hopefully be seeing a PlayStation 5 reveal any day now – but by GameStop, which promises 8K gaming, advanced ray tracing and backwards compatibility features.
However, GameStop has not yet disclosed many details regarding the PS5's controller, widely thought to be the DualShock 5. We know the controller will have advanced haptic feedback capabilities (more specific, directional vibrations rather than basic rumbles) and thanks to a few patents, we know Sony's even thinking about incorporating sensors to detect your sweat and heart rate.
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Another patent, recently published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, shows Sony is thinking about adding smartphone-style wireless charging to its controllers. It's a move that makes so much sense, we're shocked it hasn't happened already.
While Xbox One controllers and DualShock 4s are both compatible with third-party wireless charging stations, this marks the first time Sony has waded into the fray. The drawings show Sony is looking to incorporate a base on which you can rest two or more DualShock 5s (or DualShock 4s), which could even be on top of the games console itself.
The controller comes with an adaptor showcasing additional keys, which can be mapped to buttons of your choice. The adaptor is "combining a wireless charging adaptor with the ability to strategically locate duplicate game controller button controls on the adaptor, which is mounted on the back side of the controller".
These adaptors also light up to "indicate a state of a battery in the game controller, and/or to indicate a functional mapping of game controller keys to adapter keys." To us, this sounds like a more advanced version of the back button add-on recently released for the DualShock 4. You can map any button you want onto these additional paddles, so to release a second version which also allow for the possibility for wireless charging seems like a natural move.
What could it be for? The obvious answer is the PS5's DualShock 5 controller, but why not include that functionality with the controller directly, while it was being redesigned?
A second theory is that the adaptor is for the DualShock 4. If PS5 controllers end up coming with wireless functionality and back paddles already, it would make sense to release an adaptor so that gamers could use their existing DualShock 4s as additional PS5 controllers.
Such a move would gel well with the impetus on responsibility that's going round the gaming industry. Both PS5 and its rival, the Xbox Series X, will have backwards compatibility, allowing gamers to keep their existing libraries of previous games. The Xbox Series X will also have "smart delivery" which allows gamers to upgrade their Xbox One games to the Xbox Series X versions for free. Allowing PS4 owners to keep their DualShocks and use them for the PS5 is definitely in line with this philosophy.
We're excited to see Sony finally step in with its own wireless chargers, and even more excited to see what it will do with this multi-functional adaptor. Will it be part of Sony's plans for the PS5? We'll surely know soon, as a reveal can't be far away...
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