We at PC Gamer have fun ingenuity. The place would our passion be, had been it not for the tinkering and experimentation of ingenious minds? And but, not all innovations are created equal. Simply as we admire the drive to enhance and innovate, we additionally admire the willingness to cease and ask, “Expensive god, what horrors have these fingers wrought?”
Sadly, that presence of thoughts was seemingly absent throughout the conception of US Patent Software Publication No. 2025/0229172 A1: “Multi-functional gaming enter gadget with mixed mouse and joystick,” which melds gamepad and mouse in a configuration that one way or the other manages to offend each doable aesthetic, ergonomic, and non secular sensibility.
The misbegotten proposed peripheral first bubbled its method into public consciousness through the Tumblr account contextfreepatentart, and I could not assist however monitor it down by way of the USPTO’s patent database to behold the fullness of its grim majesty.
Associated articles
It’s, basically, a DualShock 4 controller that is been subjected to a grim physique horror transformation. It is controller by means of Cronenberg: The place one may count on their hand to relaxation upon a proper analog stick and grip, the patent artwork as a substitute sees the controller’s proper aspect splay outwards with non-Euclidean hubris into an unwarranted and unholy expanse of mousepad.
From the controller’s crown extends a dire umbilical, anchored to a mouse that shouldn’t be. The gadget, the patent utility says, “introduces an interactive enter gadget designed to boost the video gaming expertise by integrating a mouse-based management system with conventional gaming interfaces.”
The patent utility would not try to elucidate how somebody is predicted to carry and function the gadget as conceived and illustrated. It does word, nevertheless, that “a strategically positioned rubber sheet between the mouse and the bottom ensures the mouse’s easy and regular motion.” In order that’s good, a minimum of.
In all seriousness, there’s some advantage to the concept of melding controller and mouse inputs. Mouse plus stick—you would be liberated from the cardinal inputs of WASD motion, whereas sustaining the precision of mouse aiming. It isn’t stunning, then, that peripheral producers have already tried to create precisely that idea with merchandise just like the Asus ROG Chakram and the PlayStation-specific Hori Tactical Assault Commander Grip Controller.
Provided that the “mouse with a bit thumbstick on there” idea hasn’t taken off but, it looks like there’s room out there for opponents. Wanting on the proof earlier than us, nevertheless, it seems to be like all the great patent ideas have already been nabbed. Simply because you may conceive of a brand new strategy to sew present {hardware} ideas collectively doesn’t suggest you need to.
That stated, if I discovered this factor at a Goodwill? I might be tempted, in a “tempted by an artifact of accursed energy” kinda method.
Greatest PC controller 2025
All our present suggestions
