While I would just be thrilled to play my Playstation Vita more often, the games just don’t do it for me to devote much time to it. Of course, iPhone and Android sets have tons of games that I completely dig, however the controls are a bit unwieldy no matter what anyone says. Touch doesn’t do what I want it to either. However, PhoneJoy has broughttt out a new controller, called Play that can be preordered on Kickstarter, is aimpressiveve blend in that it is both homogenous to many platforms. Be it Android, iOS and even desktops and the design is such that it will fit to practically any phone that you could have.
Though the Play is new, PhoneJoy is an old hand when it comes to this sort of thing. They have created controllers and focus on designing controllers that connect via bluetooth to various media devices including phones and computers. They specialize in emulating the feel of the console. Essentially with this device they are looking to turn your phone into a console to take with you and they are well on their way to accomplishing that unstated goal. The gimmick is a chassis that slides out that enables the Play to fit any phone in between two control units that feature joysticks, a directional-pad, a few buttons and the forefinger buttons. For the reason that it is adjustable, if you have a mobile device that is less than 153 mm and less than 14 mm it will fit! It will even fit if you keep the device in portrait mode because the chassis can be configured to the left and right side. Excellent for a game of Tetris.
The controller has a Bluetooth 3.0 connection and the battery lasts for around 20 hours of pure unadulterated fun. There are around 14 buttons total in addition to the sensitive joysticks. It can be folded and placed into a pocket and it also works without being connected to a phone as you can connect it to a PC, Linux or a Mac.
Of course, it requires that your mobile device supports Bluetooth accessories but this is a growing market as there are already many such devices out there. iCade works and there are currently a little more than 300 games that are available. They are hoping for $50,000 from backers and are accepting pre-orders of the gamepads at $50 with a proposed shipping date in Q2 2013.
Have a look at the video for a view of the prototype and as is evident there, GTA is vastly improved on an HTC device. To add, this is essentially a working version and the finished product should be much better once it goes into production.
