Sony may bring rewind button to future PlayStation controllers

Japanese tech and gaming giant Sony could be considering adding a dedicated rewind button to future PlayStation controllers, a patent filing hints. Sony applied for the patent on April 28, 2023, but the patent was published more than a year after it was submitted, on October 31, 2024.

Sony’s gameplay rewind patent is about revisiting the played content of a video game for various reasons. But it entails just watching what you’ve played through and not replaying the game from that point on.

The gameplay rewind feature will prove helpful to players in several scenarios. For example, if players go back to a certain point in the game that gave out important information they couldn’t remember. With a dedicated gameplay rewind button on the PlayStation controller, it would become faster and easier to go back into your own gameplay to learn something in the game you forgot or missed.

“During live gameplay of a video game, a player may wish to review recently played portions the gameplay. For example, the player may have been given some important information to perform a quest, such as when a non-player character (NPC) provides details on capturing an object (e.g. weapon) with additional instructions to bring that object to a particular location. At some point during the live gameplay, the player may have forgotten portions of or all of the information, and may wish to revisit their recent gameplay”, says Sony in the patent filing.