Sony has filed a patent that would transform the PlayStation controller into a small payment terminal, capable of reading credit cards, smartphones, and gift cards. The idea is simple and rather curious: buy a game or content without typing the card details, but simply by bringing it close to the pad.
Sony Patent: How the PlayStation Controller Would Work for Payments
Based on what has emerged, Sony seems to aim at shortening the distance between users’ wallets and PlayStation’s tills. In fact, in March 2025, the company filed a patent titled “Video Game Controller-Driven Information Transfer”, published by the US patent office on September 17, 2026.
The described mechanism starts from the console, which asks for payment with a confirmation message, for example “Do you want to buy this game?”, and invites the player to bring the phone or the card close to the controller. The pad reads the data via NFC or Bluetooth and transmits them to the console, which handles verifying them and completing the payment.
Games, content and gift cards
The intended uses range from purchasing a game right after trying its demo to additional content, such as DLC or skins. The system would also recognize gift cards, with the balance appearing directly on the console, and could be used to top up the PlayStation Store wallet.
A Look into the Future?
The attached illustrations show a DualSense and a PS5, but this does not necessarily indicate the arrival of new hardware: the document does not announce a controller, nor does it confirm that the feature will arrive on Sony’s console. It is also not clear whether paying will require access to the PlayStation account.
As is often the case with patents, there is no guarantee this system will actually reach the consoles, and at the moment there are no official statements from Sony.
Perhaps this is an as-yet-unseen feature that could find space in the next generation of PlayStation, but clearly this is only a hypothesis.
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