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Poor Build Quality and High Price of iOS 7 Game Controllers Due to Strict Apple Guidelines
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In a few months, deal extreme will have 50 different ones under $20, and the companies spending all the R&D will just be punished for playing by Apple's rules.
As it should be when Apple pulls this kind of anti-consumer crap.
As it should be when Apple pulls this kind of anti-consumer crap.
The Nintendo buttons are ordered backwards, from B to A; the Genesis buttons are ordered A then B. Later Genesis controllers had X and Y in the places same places as the Dreamcast and Xbox, but they also had the C and Z buttons that Dreamcast did away with.
Well the issue is that Apple is telling the controller makers what parts to use, only from approved suppliers, and is more than likely charging a hefy license fee. And the manufacturer has to make money somewhere.
You would have to be crazy not to charge $100+ dollars for these controllers. There are only 2 on the market so noone is fighting to drive the price down. Early adopters will be willing to pay more. And these are iPhone users who are used to paying more anyway.
I used the Logitech controller the other day and the build quality seemed fine. So if there are two on the market, the half of them have fine build quality!
Keep in mind that "Microsoft spent $100 million on the Xbox One gamepad merely to make minor improvements," says the Verge.
Everyone wants these controllers to be good, cheap and fast. Right now they are only fast (as in they have been rushed to market). As a general rule you cannot expect things to be all three.
I used the Logitech controller the other day and the build quality seemed fine. So if there are two on the market, the half of them have fine build quality!
Keep in mind that "Microsoft spent $100 million on the Xbox One gamepad merely to make minor improvements," says the Verge.
Everyone wants these controllers to be good, cheap and fast. Right now they are only fast (as in they have been rushed to market). As a general rule you cannot expect things to be all three.
It's a japanese console. So Segas buttons are backwards, Nintendos buttons are in reading direction.
If only the coloring of letters would follow some order.
Nintendo
A B X Y
Sega
A B X Y
Microsoft
A B X Y
Apple
A B X Y
If only the coloring of letters would follow some order.
Nintendo
A B X Y
Sega
A B X Y
Microsoft
A B X Y
Apple
A B X Y
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And than here is this.
The Xbox controller not even color matches the Microsoft flag.
It's all out of order.
The Xbox controller not even color matches the Microsoft flag.
It's all out of order.
The problem is that Apple charge a ridiculous amount for MFI licensing which means there is less and less to go into the product and for it to still hit a price point. some of the parts that you have to buy are so overly expensive compared to non MFI parts and it is not related to just quality.
For instance there is no way that you can make an MFI cable distribute it through normal channels at normal markups and still sell it for anywhere close to the same price as an Apple cable $19
MFI just isn't good for anyone except Apple. Consumers have to pay more and get less choice, it stifles development and competition and reduces the amount companies can invest in R&D. It lastly masked it very hard for new players to come into the market.
Anyway thats my moaning for the day
For instance there is no way that you can make an MFI cable distribute it through normal channels at normal markups and still sell it for anywhere close to the same price as an Apple cable $19
MFI just isn't good for anyone except Apple. Consumers have to pay more and get less choice, it stifles development and competition and reduces the amount companies can invest in R&D. It lastly masked it very hard for new players to come into the market.
Anyway thats my moaning for the day
OSX nativly suports the PS3 BT Controler... why not do something like that on your iOS devices aswell putting a controler into millions of hands without any hassle and actualy give the developers a good reason to invest time to impliment controler suport?
Sega is also Japanese. I'm not sure what you're trying to prove anymore.
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You assume it's supposed to?
Well the difference with that is that Console controllers made by Sony or Microsoft don't have to pay all of Apples fees to be licensed to put the MiFi name on it, and be associated with Apples brand, and there isn't very much profit in Console controllers, they make tiny amounts of money on those controllers, same with the console itself ( sometimes they even lose money on each one sold ), the money is in the online fees and software licenses. Very different situation. Also econimies of scale, Microsoft and Sony produce tens of millions of these things every year, iOS controllers are not likely to see the same sales numbers,
I used to get digital joysticks for $8-16 (Atari, Coleco, C64, Amiga type which I can still use with a USB adapter and work great for those emulators; I mean try playing Impossible Mission (C64) with a gamepad. Not pleasant.) and gamepads for $2-30 (yes $2 for el cheapo models, but they worked for what they were, limited button gamepads for PC gameports). In fact, I used a cheapo-one's cable to create an Atari joystick adapter for gameports over a decade ago with $12 in Radio Shack parts and a little project bread-board (still works fine but gameports area thing of the past; I have USB versions now).
Now a PS3 controller is around $40, give or take a few bucks, but it's a high quality controller with a hell of a lot more buttons than these things have and it's usable both wired and wireless and has the rechargeable battery included with the controller. I'm using one right now with my Mac Mini + AirPlay to play various games (e.g. The Cave, Rayman Origins, Limbo (with the help of a key-controller) and Lego Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in ANOTHER ROOM on the other side of the house through an AppleTV Gen2 unit on a 47" plasma. That bluetooth enabled PS3 controller works fine over 30 feet away from the Mac Mini. It's $40, not $100 and it's a SONY brand controller, not some 3rd party fly-by-night place In never heard of like I'm seeing for iPod controllers (which don't work with most games, whereas I can get almost any game to work with the PS3 controller either through direct support or with Joystick Mapper). Thus, I have to side with those that are saying there is no excuse for POS overpriced controllers. Frankly, a company would be better off making a holder that attaches to a PS3 or XBox controller to hold the iPod for you and Apple should support a PS3 controller in iOS just like they do in OSX (if they don't already; I never tried to use one with it). Not terribly portable, but nice to take in a suitcase to the beach (if the display were bright enough to use outdoors in direct sunlight....It's really not).
Frankly, I think the point is that "poor build quality" + "high price" should NOT be a result of "strict Apple guidelines". If anything, it should mean you get a top-notch controller that's overbuilt, if anything, not a POS that should have cost 1/10 the price. I mean $100. You almost should be getting an iPod Touch with it for that much money (and older model one anyway). We're talking about 50 cent pressure switches here and cheap plastic molding. I doubt there's even $5 worth of parts inside one of those things plus a bluetooth controller. $30-40 would seem more appropriate if they actually want to sell any.
Now a PS3 controller is around $40, give or take a few bucks, but it's a high quality controller with a hell of a lot more buttons than these things have and it's usable both wired and wireless and has the rechargeable battery included with the controller. I'm using one right now with my Mac Mini + AirPlay to play various games (e.g. The Cave, Rayman Origins, Limbo (with the help of a key-controller) and Lego Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in ANOTHER ROOM on the other side of the house through an AppleTV Gen2 unit on a 47" plasma. That bluetooth enabled PS3 controller works fine over 30 feet away from the Mac Mini. It's $40, not $100 and it's a SONY brand controller, not some 3rd party fly-by-night place In never heard of like I'm seeing for iPod controllers (which don't work with most games, whereas I can get almost any game to work with the PS3 controller either through direct support or with Joystick Mapper). Thus, I have to side with those that are saying there is no excuse for POS overpriced controllers. Frankly, a company would be better off making a holder that attaches to a PS3 or XBox controller to hold the iPod for you and Apple should support a PS3 controller in iOS just like they do in OSX (if they don't already; I never tried to use one with it). Not terribly portable, but nice to take in a suitcase to the beach (if the display were bright enough to use outdoors in direct sunlight....It's really not).
Frankly, I think the point is that "poor build quality" + "high price" should NOT be a result of "strict Apple guidelines". If anything, it should mean you get a top-notch controller that's overbuilt, if anything, not a POS that should have cost 1/10 the price. I mean $100. You almost should be getting an iPod Touch with it for that much money (and older model one anyway). We're talking about 50 cent pressure switches here and cheap plastic molding. I doubt there's even $5 worth of parts inside one of those things plus a bluetooth controller. $30-40 would seem more appropriate if they actually want to sell any.
Actually this is SteelSeries' 2nd iteration on a mobile gaming controller (http://bit.ly/1awDx0p), their first one was released in August 2012 and considering the resemblance I think the Stratus is a bit better thought trough and hardly rushed.
Also your own sister site complements the Stratus controller for its good button and analog stick feel in comparison with the MOGA and Logitech controller. Yes, later the article points out that the build quality is lower than that of Xbox & Sony but that's hardly comparable in my opinion. Just consider the savings those two company's have on sheer scale of their production size compared to this type of niche product.
Also your own sister site complements the Stratus controller for its good button and analog stick feel in comparison with the MOGA and Logitech controller. Yes, later the article points out that the build quality is lower than that of Xbox & Sony but that's hardly comparable in my opinion. Just consider the savings those two company's have on sheer scale of their production size compared to this type of niche product.
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If the sole reason why these controllers are $100 is because there isn't a huge market to exploit, then why did ThinkGeek sell the iCade 8-bittys for $30? They're pretty much the exact same thing, minus an analog controller, and weren't expected to sell in the millions. It was about as niche as niche could be. Shouldn't they have been about the same price?
Completely overpriced
The price of these controllers are ridiculous, especially when nintendo and sony both make a whole system (vita and 3DSXL) for about twice that price. I'd say the main problem is the lack of games, if apple allowed easy controller addition to its code...
The price of these controllers are ridiculous, especially when nintendo and sony both make a whole system (vita and 3DSXL) for about twice that price. I'd say the main problem is the lack of games, if apple allowed easy controller addition to its code...
At some point, SONY will make Playstation Now work on iOS and I hope that will mean free compatibility with their controllers. It's a missed opportunity for Apple to force prices to be so high for third-party controllers; any current iOS device connected to a television via HDMI could be like a console with a wireless pad.
Apples fault all the way !
When we heard apple was going to support gamepads, we were expecting full support for the interface like what they did with keyboards, that meant full support for any standard gamepad, what we are having now before us is a big fail crashed scheme all gone in flames !
We the gamers didn't ask for hardware, we asked for native INTERFACE SUPPORT,
we didn't need new useless overpriced betas
What apple needed to do if not their own gamepad was to deliver a setting option to remap buttons and config any standard gamepad, that would have ensured full support for any game on the app store
(Blutrol like solution)
There is no care for the experience and no consideration for the end user
When we heard apple was going to support gamepads, we were expecting full support for the interface like what they did with keyboards, that meant full support for any standard gamepad, what we are having now before us is a big fail crashed scheme all gone in flames !
We the gamers didn't ask for hardware, we asked for native INTERFACE SUPPORT,
we didn't need new useless overpriced betas
What apple needed to do if not their own gamepad was to deliver a setting option to remap buttons and config any standard gamepad, that would have ensured full support for any game on the app store
(Blutrol like solution)
There is no care for the experience and no consideration for the end user
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Colors should have meaning. They should help you to identify and remember buttons. A color should always stick to the same button. If you change the order of buttons, the colors should move with them. Button A should always be the Red one, on any controller by any company.
Color symbolism and psychology should be used in games. Blue could mean flying or swimming, Red obviously is firing and Yellow could be gold or light. Every PC gamer knows, R is Reload and G is Granades in almost every game. And those buttons don't move on your keyboard. They stay where they are and they don't swap colors to confuse you.
The only thing all game controllers have in common is that one button is to the left and one to the right of your thumb. One is up and one is down, but what color it has is absolutely arbitrary. And the letters are ordered by the latin alphabet, so depending on reading direction they are always backwards somewhere in the world.
Only the Playstation buttons don't need to have that problem, because there is no implicit order to geometric shapes. But they have it as well, because the rest of the console industry has it.
No, they are not supposed to, but matching your companies brand at least gives some kind of reasoning, why one color is here and one color is there. And since button coloring seams to be highly company specific, stick with whatever color brand your company already has established.
This way we can at least replay all of the 18 games released for the Apple Bandai Pippin on our iOS devices with the "right" apple colors.
I think developers will be waiting a long time till Apple relaxes on anything...
In fact, I can't even remember the last time Apple relaxed.... They control the ecosystem...If people can't relate, go to Android.
Their not in the market to make life easier for develops, (or so I think).
Which is why so much has changed in iOS7.
In fact, I can't even remember the last time Apple relaxed.... They control the ecosystem...If people can't relate, go to Android.
Their not in the market to make life easier for develops, (or so I think).
Which is why so much has changed in iOS7.
Colors wouldn't matter, because you're not looking at your gamepad while playing a game. It's all based on feel and positioning. And blue for flying/swimming ect. wouldn't work out too well, since all games have different gameplay, and different ways to do things.
So it doesn't matter if they swap the colors. All that matters is that you know where B is, where A is, etc. and they're all arrayed in a similar fashion, so if you pick up one controller over another, you're almost immediately comfortable with it.
Not true at all. The shapes differ, but the overall layout remains fairly similar. All console controllers have 4 shoulder buttons, two analog sticks with buttons underneath them, 4 face buttons, a select, start, and home button, and a d-pad. They all practically have to be laid out about the same, due to the availability of multiplatform games.
So no, the colors of the buttons don't matter, nor do their labeling. It's their positions that are important.
The 8bitty doesn't have the all the triggers, doesn't have analog sticks, doesn't have rechargeable batteries, doesn't have pressure sensitive buttons, is not ergonomic and doesn't have the same finishes (i.e. rubberized feel) that improve the use experience. I mean... that's a pretty big list of differences that come at a cost!
Anyway, it looks like somebody's been following reactions in the community and ducked the price to $79: http://steelseries.com/blog/press/s...ing-controller-now-available-for-79-99-e79-99