Patent reveals design of an unannounced Google game controller
So no, that image you've seen online isn't real.
A newly discovered patent has intimated the design specification for an unannounced Google game controller.
While Google hasn't officially shared anything as yet, it's thought we might find out more about the controller at an event the tech firm is hosting at Game Developers Conference 2019 later this month, which is rumoured to offer more details about Google's upcoming streaming service.
As detailed by The Verge, the patent itself is for a controller notification system that signals when the player gets a chat request, an invitation, leaderboard changes, or when a game is available. According to the filing, this copyright registration - made in October last year - is a continuation of a prior filing lodged in 2014.
Interesting, the copyright filing does not detail the controller nor its design, only its notification system. The document also includes a handful of unbranded technical sketches of what the controller might look like, and now unofficial renders mocked up from those sketches are spreading across social media.
Hopefully we'll find out more at GDC 2019 - the event kicks off in San Francisco on 18th March, 2019.
Are you ready for a new generation of streaming services? As Oli writes, "game streaming is coming. It's been coming since before we all laughed at OnLive and ignored PlayStation Now, and those too-little-too-soon gambits did nothing to impede its inevitable arrival."