I think they are making a controller that is compatible with every console..

o-o

why would they develop a 3rd party controller for the Wii or XBOX 360?

I don't think this controller would catch on for much the same reason why Natal will never be used as a primary controller. It lacks tactile feedback. I'm imagining holding the controller with LCD buttons, but without looking at the controller, there's really no way to know if you pressed a button or what button you pressed. With handheld systems like the DS and iPhone/Touch it's different because you're actually looking at the screen anyway, but for a console game controller it would make it unusable for most of the gaming demographic in my opinion.

tactile feed back would be already installed inside of each companies shell.
so if say for instance you like the PS3 controller over the xbox360's, the shell part of the controller would just contain IR, Bluetooth, feedback motor's. with the left an right analog stick's r1,r2,l2,r2 but there would be an open space in the center of the controller where the screen LCD device would go.

It's very smart if you think about it.   Much of the profit that these companies make is off of accessories (Controllers, Memory Cards, etc).  According to their research (Which they mentioned in other articles)  much of this generation is showing a cross-console ownership with the PS3 / 360.   What better way to still reel in some cash?   Get people who own the 360 and prefer a PS3 type of controller.   Or get people who prefer this universal controller on all systems and want to use it over the standard one.

Not everyone is going to own a PS3 and they realize and accept that.  But why not dip a bit into their competitions sales and put some money back into their pocket and possibly pull people back into their console.

To be honest I'm kind of excited to read this news, if I buy a 360, surely will be pretty useful to have a controller that works on both consoles, and this way I won't have to waste another 50€ on a PS360 controller only. Hope M$/Nintendo don't find a way to sue Sony lol

This wont be good if it is a touch screen controller......just play a gba emulator on a ipod touch to see what I mean.

Its a patent. Who knows what Sony is going to do with it. They might not do anything with the patent.

I don't think something like this would ever happen. A third party company? yes, but Sony? No way.

I would think an accessory like this must be licensed by the console manufacturers and there's no way Nintendo and Microsoft would be OK with this.