Here’s why the first crop of iPhone Game Controllers have been a flop

Apple added official support for Made for iOS Game Controllers in iOS 7, and we’ve seen several companies release iPhone game controllers in different form-factors to largely unimpressive reviews, despite their high $100 price-tag. So why aren’t MFi game controllers as good as other controllers? According to a recent 9to5Mac report, most of the blame goes to Apple, as it has a strict set of rules in place for the MFi program that not only result in higher costs, but deteriorated quality as well: One issue is that Apple’s MFi program requires manufacturers to source their pressure sensitive analog switches for buttons and thumbsticks from a single Apple approved supplier. An employee of Logitech that worked on the project expressed disappointment with the buttons compared to the company’s other gamepads and noted its first controller, the PowerShell, was put together in haste. Apart from the analog switches, another issue both manufacturers and developers faced was the lack of time to ship their respective products, further degrading quality. As an example, the report notes that developers need to specifically fine-tune for different controllers based on their varying button sensitivity, which is a time consuming task, but vital for a good gaming experience. Of course, unless game controllers sell in large quantities, developers have no incentive for supporting them: App developer Massive Damage compared the controllers to Kinect: “An optional piece of equipment with relatively low market penetration that a developer has to program and design for explicitly.” It won’t introduce controller support in any of its games “until iPhones come with controllers out of the box.” Apple will hopefully relax its MFi rules a little, letting manufacturers improve quality and reduce prices, which in turn would improve adoption and encourage developers to invest their time in adding support for the new Game Controller APIs. Continue reading →

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