Sony’s latest patent uses a banana as a PS5 controller

Sony Interactive Entertainment has applied for a patent to use a banana as a PlayStation controller. We know what you’re thinking, but that’s not it:

Photo by Mike FANOUS / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

The patent (spied on by GamesIndustry.biz on Tuesday) is actually for a method that turns a “passive non-luminous object being held by a user” into a controller, recognizing the location of virtual buttons on it, with a banana used as illustrated example. Sony’s idea could work with anything in the user’s hands, be it a coffee mug, a book, a cold pack or a Preparation H tube.

“It would be desirable for a user to be able to use a cheap, simple, non-electronic device as a video game peripheral,” says the patent application. In the examples provided by Sony, players can take one (or two) bananas, oranges or other inanimate objects and move them around, effectively using them as one (or two) analog sticks. In another illustration, the virtual buttons are mapped to a banana, which suggests that a virtual reality headset may also be involved.

This all sounds like something that Dylan “Rudeism” Beck just love. He is the Twitch streamer who “makes the wrong game” using silly objects (or costumes) as a controller. In fact, Rudeism literally touched Overwatch using a dozen bananas.

Still, it is important to remember that this is a patent subscription, which does not mean that there is a finished product or even plans for one.