New Valve Controller Patent Application

A new international patent application from Valve proposes a swappable button scheme for a handheld controller, suggesting Valve may be planning a new version of their recently discontinued Steam Controller (thanks Tyler McVicker via PCGamesN). Here's the abstract for the patent:
Described herein are, among other things, handheld controllers that include housings having one or more receiver portions for detachably coupling to one or more controls. For example, a housing of one such controller may include, on a front surface of the housing, a receiver that is configured to detachably couple to one or more joysticks, one or more D-pads, one or more track pads, one or more buttons, and/or the like. In some instances, a user may swap a first control for a second control based on a current application (e.g., game title) that the user is playing, based on comfort of the user, and/or for any other reason.