Could Microsoft be about to borrow Sony’s best ideas? (pic: Metro)

A new Microsoft survey sent out to customers is asking whether you’d like to see adaptive triggers on your Xbox Series X/S gamepad.

It’s no great surprise to find that the PlayStation 5 has taken an early lead in the next gen console wars, but what is unexpected is what a strong selling point the DualSense controller has become – and that’s a fact that hasn’t been lost on Microsoft.

Previously, Microsoft had been the one known for the quality and innovation of its controllers but the new Xbox Series X/S joypad is barely any different from the Xbox One era ones, although that may not be the case for long.

A survey sent out to Xbox owners in the US asks whether fans are ‘aware of features on PlayStation controllers’ and whether they’d like to see them reproduced for a future Xbox controller.

Although it keeps the analogue sticks in the same position, the DualSense ditches the traditional design of the DualShock controllers and adds two important new features: haptic feedback for subtler and more versatile rumble effects and adaptive triggers that can offer resistance to your button presses.

According to TechRadar, the survey also asks what Xbox owners think of the PlayStation 5’s new user interface – which has also seen a major overhaul, while the Xbox Series X/S remains almost identical to the Xbox One.

Other companies regularly borrow ideas for new controllers from each other, so even without this survey it’d be easy to imagine that Microsoft was working on a new gamepad inspired by the DualSense.

How much of a priority they make that depends, in part, on how people respond to the survey, but it already seems inevitable that there’ll be a revision further down the line.

If there is then that guarantees even more support for adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, as developers are able to support the features knowing that they can be experienced on both consoles.