Microsoft Thinking About Windows Phone ‘Control Pads’

A patent filing made public last week (but first filed in 2010) shows that Microsoft is at least thinking about making its Windows line of mobile phones a little easier to game on.

The patent is for a mobile phone that looks like Sony’s Xperia Play, with a slide-out design. Interestingly, the patent is focusing on the idea that the part sliding out is interchangeable, so it can be a keyboard or, for gaming purposes, a control pad arrangement.

Given Windows phones are the third wheel in the mobile gaming space behind Android and iOS, it’s understandable Microsoft would be at least looking at ways to improve their, well, game.

But I can’t help but thinking it would be a half-arsed competitor to Sony’s half-arsed Xperia Play. What Microsoft would need to compete in the mobile gaming space would be a serious Vita competitor (something it’s understandably been reluctant to do) and not a gimmick phone.

But remember, this being a patent application, that’s all it is: thinking. It’s not a product reveal, nor a definitive statement of intent.

MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE HAVING MULTIPLE, INTERCHANGEABLE SECOND DEVICES [USPTO, via Eurogamer]