MSFT Patents Dual, Wired and Wireless Controller

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).

Check out the patent here.

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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.

35 Comments Comment from the forums

jdubsbooth

So it's just like the PS3 controller...?
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kyeana

Why not just have it be wireless, and let you charge it to plug it in while playing?

This seems overly complex to me :P
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nonameworks

This is standard on PS3, look out Sony
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CoderDunn

Isn't the patent system awesome? /s
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pharge

Hope SONY does have its own patents on PS3 controller.... or... it will be the rise of another patent war!
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maigo

kyeanaWhy not just have it be wireless, and let you charge it to plug it in while playing?This seems overly complex to meExactly this
It seems pointless unless you know solar flares are about to knock out your wireless
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maestintaolius

Well, it's a continuation of the 2004 application, so it's not like it was JUST submitted. My guess is it's another defensive patent to block the NPEs that have sued sony, nintendo and ms in the past over fairly obvious designs hoping for a settlement (Fenner Investments, Eleven Engineering, Immerson, Anascape and so on and on and on). MS would never use this to go after Sony or Nintendo because: 1 - there's plenty of prior art that any company with decent lawyers could use, 2 - it's generally not a good use of capital to sue someone else who also has lots of capital on a case you'd be unlikely to win (see 1), 3 - if they sue sony or nintendo it'll be likely they'd come back with their own patent infringement suits because, as well all know, there's nothing new under the sun (man is just a hairless ape who figured out round things roll and how to put fire in a box and most everything invented has been permutations on those ideas :P). This stuff is as silly as the patent on "slide to unlock" (heck, the Predator had "slide to unlock" on his wrist computer self destruct dealie when he tried to kill Arnie).
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jaysbob

can't you already buy an accessory that will let you do just this?
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lukeeu

kyeanaWhy not just have it be wireless, and let you charge it to plug it in while playing?This seems overly complex to meAlready patented.
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Blessedman

I think the next big thing will be an external charge/wired station that can transmit over longer distances having a true wired power source. Though I am not sure about delays of having a separate station to receive and then retransmit to the console itself. Still though, that is what I would want.
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