Apple patents game controller (IGN)

[storino03]

http://m.ign.com/articles/2012/07/26/apple-patents-game-controller

What are your thoughts? Does it seem viable? If it means just an accessory attachment for their existing patents products instead of a full-blown console, I might be interested.

[SignOfZeta]

Such a thing is imminent. They can't just be a touch machine forever. Me wanting one or not mostly depends on how good it is. If it goes well I'm extremely interested.

[Opethian]

so they dont own the patent on the pippin controller ? lol

[FiftyQuid]

Such a thing is imminent. They can't just be a touch machine forever. Me wanting one or not mostly depends on how good it is. If it goes well I'm extremely interested.

It's going to be like holding sex in your hands.

[soop]

Sounds good.  It's about damn time too.  I thought Windows phone should have done that with 360 controllers.

Such a thing is imminent. They can't just be a touch machine forever. Me wanting one or not mostly depends on how good it is. If it goes well I'm extremely interested.

It's going to be like holding sex in your hands.

Uhmm eww.

[RegalSin]

uuuhmmmmmmmmmm who cares, all they did was what, and their are tons of applications, blah blah blah. not my problem right now, OS9 was the last real Apple,

What is stupid, is how somebody already made a controller, case for the iphone and is selling like hotcakes.

So why should we care?

They are going to sue people now??

[soop]

Because Ouya(sp) is basically building the same thing with no installed userbase that Apple could conceiveable do with this.  Except the open source thing maybe.

[RegalSin]

All a person has to do, to turn a smart-phone into a game console, is make a video out, and wireless controller reciever ), that is it. A PSP is basically that in a nutshell.

[Vecanti]

I assume this is a patent to use NFC (near field communication) with a game controller?  I mean I already use Wii controllers on my Xperia Android phone. (bluetooth)  So there is nothing else novel here.  Not that just using yet another new wireless tech simply for a game controller somehow should be unique enough for a patent.

Maybe off topic, but I guess I don't ever want a phone with NFC.  I thought that was for "digital wallets" and had a range of like 1/2 and inch.  If it can transmit far enough to use a joystick than seems like a bad idea.  Not that NFC in and of itself is probably bad, but you know what ever phone has as NFC chip is going to some how have software tied to billing you can't remove with out jail-breaking or some non-sense.  At it transmits that far...

[SignOfZeta]

The Android counter response is always so predicable. "Big deal, I do that already!...at home by myself...with virtually no software support..." I mean, seriously, juggling a Wiimote and a phone at the same time...not exactly elegant. You do that to work and back on the bus every day, right? The fact that range concerns you shows how much you are missing the point. Both the controller and the phone would be IN YOUR HAND. How much range do you need for that?

Don't get me wrong, being able to use the Wiimote for anything non-Wii has tremendous possibilities, but its not exactly a great package for gaming. The Wiimote, by its very nature, leaves a lot to be desired gaming controller-wise.

The reason why this could be great is pretty damned obvious. As it is, the iOS is a very significant gaming platform, but at the same time is, for me, almost impossible to enjoy gaming with due to it being touch only. While there are things like that iArcade controller (which only works with a very small number of games and it also stupid) and some Jailbreak-only things, they only addresss a microscopic sliver of users. Nobody is going to develop Metal Gear Solid, or Super Robot Wars, or Formula 1 2012, or Phantasy Star Online for a controller that only %0.001 of all users have access too.

NFC works perfectly well enough for a controller-shaped dock that the phone physically fits into. If its 1st party and contains a good d-pad and a few buttons it will INSTANTLY transform mobile gaming because EVERY game released will support it. Since there are dozens of games released every day for iOS this would be a big deal. Over and over again I'm elated and then disappointed by iOS games. I see the thing, it looks rad, then I'm disappointed when I realize that I almost always abandon virtually every iOS game because they are touch only.

If they make such a device...Nintendo and Sony are f*cked. Well, Nintendo would probably be fine, but an iPhone 5 with a real gaming interface would basically single handedly kill the already struggling Vita...instantly. Developers would start making real games that are worth more than $0.99 for the iPhone and there would be no point in doing anything for the Vita (a system that few companies are doing much for already).

Overall...I'm not so sure this thing will happen, or if it does that it will be handled well. Its not a small thing though. If done right, it will be a big big deal. We can't count on that though. Apple makes the best track pads in the world by far, but they make mice that are absolutely SHITE and seem to not be aware of it at all. They might do something stupid like put a Sidewinder style diagonal D-pad on it, make it one button, etc, there are a million ways to f*ck up a controller.

[esteban]

They might do something stupid like put a Sidewinder style diagonal D-pad on it, make it one button, etc, there are a million ways to f*ck up a controller.

Seriously. I still have a Sidewinder on my ancient computer. So frustrating for certain games that require precision.

And there are billion way to mess up a controller .

[bob]

I bet this is for appleTV...

[Vecanti]

The Android counter response is always so predicable.

Whoa!  I was talking about NFC mainly here and I wouldn't want to buy 'any' phone with NFC if it's transmitting financial data far enough that you can use it for a wireless joytick/keyboard/mouse or whatever you can think of.

NFC works perfectly well enough for a controller-shaped dock that the phone physically fits into.

Maybe I mis-understood the article.  I looks like it's using NFC to 'broadcast' a signal.  It mentions using multiple controllers at one time.  Nothing that it is docked.  That was why I was I surprised.  I thought NFC was, like I said, 1/2" communication and not for something that could be used as far away as multiple controllers.


Anyway, my comment has nothing to do about Apple and only about NFC and the patent system.  I mean, every time some new wireless tech comes out does somebody get "re-patent" every idea.  Let say someone makes a new wireless tech called greentooth, can I be granted a patent for wireless keyboards that use greentooth?  Or a wireless joystick over greentooth?