In recent times, the topic of "why young people are reluctant to change mobile phones" has aroused widespread discussion on the Internet, and the significant reduction in the frequency of user replacement of mobile phones has not only appeared in relevant media reports, but also reflected in the reports of major data and statistical agencies. Although consumers' reluctance to replace mobile phones is a headache for mobile phone manufacturers, in addition to improving the competitiveness of new products, developing other categories of products is also an option.
Previously, it was reported that Apple was investigating the feasibility of entering the game console market by hiring an external consulting agency, indicating that after apple Pippin suffered a fiasco that year, Apple seemed to be interested in game consoles again. Of course, the news that Apple is considering launching a game console has actually been spread for a long time, but it is still "empty", but there is a great possibility that Apple will do a gamepad. A few days ago, overseas technology media Patently Apple exposed Apple's application for gamepad-related patents in Europe.
Although Apple wants to do the gamepad thing, it seems incredible, after all, the iPhone and iPad are representatives of the touch screen, and even apple at the iPod touch2 conference that year, in order to show the advantages of the touch screen, also deliberately chose EA's "Spore" and SEGA's "Super Monkey Ball" two games. In a sense, iOS devices as a representative of the touch screen, the gaming experience has long been based on touch as a model, seemingly not too close to the gamepad with physical buttons.
However, the truth is that due to the heavy gradation of mobile games in the past few years, game types such as MOBA, FPS, ARPG and so on have begun to appear on mobile phones. For example, "Glory of kings", "Peace Elite", "Original God", etc., this large number of heavy games are characterized by emphasizing control and even confrontation, requiring features such as calculating advance quantities, positioning and casting, and requiring very high timeliness, etc. The flaw of touch operation accuracy is not high and there is no feedback has made players choose to vote with their feet. Nowadays, in Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and even Apple's official website, there are gamepads designed for mobile phones, and even a considerable number of game phone manufacturers have also made gamepads.
So what exactly does Apple's gamepad look like? Unfortunately, in the relevant patent documents currently exposed, Apple's whimsy seems to be missing, and it can even be called conservative. According to the patent document, numbered WO2022067344, Apple's gamepad can seamlessly connect the iPhone to the iPad and is available in three different styles.
Among them, the shape of the first gamepad is similar to the JoyCon controller prepared by Nintendo for Swtich, and like JoyCon, the function keys and cross keys that Apple gives the two controllers are also reversed from each other, which can be fixed in some way to the top and bottom of the iPhone or iPad, or on the left and right sides.
Putting aside Nintendo's mistakes in The JoyCon design, which led to the fatal flaw of "drift", the slot assembly design of this handle also makes it achieve different effects of ordinary handles, handheld handles, and somatosensory handles, which perfectly fit the characteristics of Switch. For mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads, a small, lightweight, and easy-to-assemble grip is undoubtedly the most suitable.
The second is similar to the traditional gamepads such as Microsoft's Xbox series X/S and Sony's DualSense, and the advantage of this scheme is that a considerable number of mobile games in the past decade have been designed with a left joystick + a right function key. Therefore, for today's gamers and friends, the design of using traditional gamepads can greatly reduce the cost of learning, and can also reduce the difficulty of developers adapting to the controller.
The third design is similar to the Nintendo NDS, using a laptop-like clamshell shape, its screen part is implemented by the iPhone or iPad, and the lower half is borrowed from the NDS's ideas, the left side is the cross key, the right side is the function key, and the middle is the auxiliary screen, providing virtual keyboard and other functions. However, this plan may be rejected first, and the reason is simple, because the failure of NDS has proved that players are not buying this kind of design. What's more, the Sony DualSense and SteelSeries Nimbus+ sold on Apple's official website belong to the regular gamepad model, and razer Kishi is an upgraded version of the JoyCon controller, but there is no such product as NDS.
But no matter how Apple chooses, making gamepads in the next game should be good news for players, because it means that Apple has acknowledged the combination of mobile phones and gamepads. You know, until today, there are still quite a few game manufacturers for the use of gamepads on mobile phones have resistance, and Apple's gamepad is equivalent to acknowledging the status of the latter, which may mean that future game manufacturers will incorporate the controller into the official adaptation when developing mobile games.
So the only question now is when will Apple's gamepad be released?
【The picture of this article comes from the network】