MSFT Patents Dual, Wired and Wireless Controller
Microsoft has patented a type of dual controller that is both wired and wireless.
There are pros and cons to wired and wireless controllers. With the former, you know you're not going to run out of battery mid-game, but you can't really go very far. A wireless controller allows for a lot more movement, but you might find yourself low on controller juice at a pivotal part of the game.
A patent filed by Microsoft with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this year attempts to solve this dilemma by being both wireless and wired. By the sounds of things, you'll be able to switch while you're playing and the controller would be able to inform currently played game to flip between the two. SlashGear reports that the game wouldn't need to be paused, and it could automatically keep track of which controller goes with which player (and their accompanying saved games).

This seems overly complex to me
This seems overly complex to me
Exactly this
It seems pointless unless you know solar flares are about to knock out your wireless
Already patented.
Yeah, but that's saying it can send the game data over the wire while plugged in.
The only thing that this stops (if you like it going over the wire anyway) is the ability to plug the controller into a closer laptop for power. You can even not use any sort of battery pack that way. For some reason people are surprised when I do this...
BUT WAIT!!!! You wont have to pause the game!
So now you can race your racing car game, get up, pickup your cable, plug in into the controller, all while shaving a full second off your lap time and most importantly, not having to waste a critical 10 seconds of gaming time!
Lol with that tiny cable?
Was the first TV remote control ever patented? Or having to stop changing channels to pull the back off use a corner of the plastic back bit to wedge between the batteries and throw in a new set only to find out it uses AAA and in your third draw down you only have AA so you find another remote in the house that uses AAA and use the batteries out of that hoping no one notices.