If you follow the news closely, you'll know that PlayStation files a lot of patents. Every other month, there seems to be a headline that says Sony will implement some weird and whacky features for its consoles, or create a new bit of hardware that looks totally incoherent next to the brand's existing lineup.
If you're still waiting for the PlayStation Banana gamepad to sweep into our list of the best PC controllers though, I have some bad news for you. Most of the patents the company is awarded never see the light of day as finished products, and it seems more like Sony really just bags ownership of ideas to stop rivals from making them first.
It's bizarre then, that at CES this week, the latest Xbox Series X controller has been announced, and it looks like a bona fide rip-off of the official PS5 gamepad. The Hyperkin Competitor has caught a lot of attention for its DualSense-like looks, and for good reason. There are transparent buttons, tiny textures on the controller's grips, and even a similarly placed mute button to Sony's flagship. The D-pad buttons are the exact shape of the ones found on a DualSense, which feels totally out of place for an Xbox controller since they usually feature 8-way directional circles instead of four distinct buttons.
The whole product looks like it's been designed to jab Sony in the ribs, which is a hilarious punch for Xbox to throw at a competitor platform that's outselling its own console so handily. The Hyperkin Competitor has official Xbox licensing, so don't doubt that this thing has gone through some painstaking development processes with people from Microsoft - who have clearly okayed its uncanny PS5 design.
I hope Sony can have a sense of humor with it, because for a company that's so hell-bent on stopping competitors from using its ideas, the new Hyperkin pad smells like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Hyperkin Competitor: Meme, or worth buying?
When you look past its clear console war-fueling disguise though, the Hyperkin Competitor actually has a lot going for it.
For starters, it might be the first Xbox Series X controller to lock users into a symmetrical thumbstick layout. Other pads for Xbox consoles this generation have modular designs, which means you could swap around the parts of the Victrix Pro BFG for Xbox and make it have the symmetrical layout of one of the best PS5 controllers. But I can't think of another Xbox controller that has no option to switch to the offset layout that they're typically known for.
As if its PS5-coded design wasn't enough of a poke at Sony's ribs, the Hyperkin Competitor features anti-stick drift thumbsticks, healing an ill that's plagued the official DualSense since its 2020 launch.
Then, there are two back buttons, which I've always felt the stock DualSense is missing. Sure, you can save up and spend $200 or so on a DualSense Edge, but for its price, I always felt more functionality should be in there. The Hyperkin Competitor's back buttons look ergonomically placed, and while it's a shame there aren't four of them to really tilt this toward competitive gameplay, a pair of back buttons could honestly be a DualSense killer when using this as on PC.
Of course, it'll all depend on how much this new gamepad is selling for, because right now we don't have any official price or release date details. I've reached out to Hyperkin for more information, but since the brand mainly focuses on retro controllers like its Hyperkin Duke, and prices things pretty reasonably, I'd be willing to bet this won't be over the $100 mark.
Looking for more controllers to consider? Look at the best joysticks, the best racing wheels for PC, and the best Xbox One controllers.
