This can apply to Gameloft, Ngmoco, Capcom, Konami or hell any developer with the will and resources to do this. Take COD: Zombies or NOVA for example. What if the developer had two versions of the app, the standard version, and a $25 version that if you purchase, they will email you and you give them your address, and they will ship you a Gamepad attachment for their game, and all their future games (or all games in general) With Physical Buttons/Tactile Feedback. Gameloft releases a crap ton of solid shooters and racing games each year. They have the money to contract out to a chinese manufacturer to build these addons at the cost of a few bucks per addon. If they promised support all their major games, and an update to NOVA supporting this gamepad as well, I think it would be a huge hit. NOVA, Shrek Kart, Blades of Fury and all of Gamelofts excellent games would benefit immensely from such a gamepad add on. Gameloft is thus in an ideal situation to pull this off. They have enough games that would benefit from this add on already, and enough in the pipeline, that their fans would find it worthwhile to invest in it. And once it becomes popular, other developers might update their apps to support this add on as well. Perhaps something akin to this... http://flickr.com/photos/danielmacdonald/2127089390/ Three requirements are must haves imho... 1. The peripheral should look very sleek, flush with the phone and use the same black plastic found in the front of all iphones. iPhone owners care greatly about how thier device looks. If there was anyways that the peripheral could overlap the silver lining on the bezel of the iPhone as well, so that the whole phone+device looks flush and black throughout, that would be perfect. 2. The peripheral must have dual analog sticks/nubs. Imagine the PSP's analog nub, but on both sides. Portable gamers have been clamoring for this feature forever now, so it's about time they get it. I can't overstress how important it is the the iPhone's gaming pad has DUAL ANALOG NUBS (and shoulder trigger buttons). 3. The peripheral must have two shoulder buttons and a solid D-Pad akin to the PSP/PS3's D-Pad to enable fighting games. Do these things and the peripheral will be a big hit. Also the smaller the add on, the better. It should be as small as humanly possible. And it might look nice if it instead had a rectangular design with curved edges identical to the iphone. Apple released full support for hardware add on accessories for apps in their previous SDK, so the timing is perfect. Gameloft or any developers reading this, feel free to use this idea. This is a very generic idea that everyone has thought of already. It's not unique and was even hinted at by Apple's own SDK. So I have no legal rights over this idea. But if it makes you feel better, I officially denounce any and all claim to this idea and any financial compensation for this idea. Just do it.
lol, I doubt that they ever will. Personally I have no need for one. The controls work fine for me, and I prefer touch controls, they work well.
from my understanding, the rumor is Apple has not allowed this to happen, despite some companies trying. arn
There's gotta be some sort of reason - how hard would it be for someone like Hori to make a battery powered bluetooth controller and for devs to use it? I would kill for one of these for my iPod Touch: (You don't know how awesome these are for Wii Virtual Console games!) Add a little clip for your iPod/iPhone to sit on top and you'd be good to go!
Well, the iControlPad is nearing completion. Once that comes out, I think some games will update to be compatible with it. It might catch on, you never know.
I would be loving life it that ever happened, it would open the device up to a whole new world of video games if the games worked with and without the controlpad
I'd get a DS, which already has great battery life and physical controls, before I'd lug around two separate devices that'll each die in less than 3 hours.
You know what, this is a great choice! I actually took my GBA (not SP) with me on my last trip to Singapore - AA batteries last a long time and are easy to find no matter where you go. Played a lot of Ultimate Card Games on the road when we went to Malaysia, not to mention playing through a good chunk of Laser Squad Nemesis on the plane...
I don't think a controller would burn batteries that quickly. After all, bluetooth keyboards last for weeks. In fact, the "controller cradle" would probably be able to power the iPhone/iPod for a few hours on its own (iControlpad is supposedly going to feature a model with a built in battery). You have a point about carrying 2 devices though. But if the games you like are on the iPod...
I don't think an external controller will take off unless they can be used without jailbreaking. But the idea of a built-in battery is great, especially if the battery could be rechargeable and easily replaced.
I think Apple just need to make an official control pad to take any guess work out of whether or not to support a particular one or not
Wasn't one of the additions of OS3 the ability to use external hardware? If this works, even official app store games could use this if they updated to work with it.
Iphone/Ipod Touch definitely needs a gamepad, get the virtual gamepad's off the screen and give us some real buttons to press instead. I wonder why a company like Nyko or Madcatz hasn't tried making this controller.
its not very convenient tho. touch controls work perfectly fine just as long as the dev takes their time on it and fine tunes accordingly but if your addimet about the external controller, jailbreak go to cydia and get BT Stack. it lets you use your Wii mote as an external controller and soon the PS3.. but not sure how that would go with compatibilty to appstore games. works good on nintendo64 emulator tho
