Typing a card number with a controller’s thumbstick is nobody’s idea of fun, and Sony has filed a patent that tries to skip it. The filing, titled “Video game controller-driven information transfer”, is for a pad that talks to your phone. It is a patent application only, and Sony has announced no such controller.
Here is the sequence it lays out. The controller notices a phone within range and signals it. The phone answers with a confirmation, and the controller hands the details on to the console. Short-range radio would handle the first step, and the patent allows NFC, Bluetooth or both.
NFC is the technology behind tap-to-pay on phones and watches. Nintendo already puts it in the Wii U GamePad and the Switch Pro Controller, where it reads amiibo figures.
What sets the tap off, per the patent, is “an event that has occurred at the video game console”. Its drawings cover cases like a game purchase, a gift-card code or entering an online match. They also suggest the tap could sign you into your PlayStation account, even on a friend’s console.
For players the appeal is plain: a phone already holds saved cards and logins, so a tap would replace several screens of typing on the PlayStation Store. For Sony it could also mean fewer abandoned purchases, since the fiddly steps are where a buyer gives up.
Sony filed it as a provisional application in 2025, and many patents never become products. A controller announcement from Sony that mentions NFC, or a granted patent carrying the same wording, would be the sign that this one is heading to shops.
