I agree it looks pretty crappy, but perhaps the Gameloft partnership could lead to more unified support down the line than similar controllers recieve. That's probably the best one could hope for with this. IGN has quick look at it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N84x0VKcp5U&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I'm cut-n-pasting a user comment from IGN. The guy claims to be a developer.
SpicyGyro 3 hours ago −
Ok, here's my developer take on this (and pretty much any other 3rd party controller thingy for ios devices)
I'm sure it works great, but at $80, and even at any price, there just isn't going to be a very big user base for these products. Even if you assume 30% of your players will have one (a rediculously high percentage), you're still going to have to develop for touch screen controls for your other 70%. All your testing and tinkering and balancing is going to be for touch controls, not this. Now take into account the fact that there's at least 10-20 devices like this, and they all have to be integrated separately, is it worth it to take the time and money to support them? Especially when Apple's segmentation is becoming rampant (we're getting to android levels here, from one company) and there's already a plethora of devices we have to test on.
Even if Apple themselves were to develop a controller add-on, you still have to assume your average player is playing with just the touch screen. Hell, even if Apple's next ipod touch were to have an analog stick and face buttons built in, we'd still have to develop for the older devices until they're phased out.
I'm glad these companies are pushing out options, but I think if you want a more standardized traditional gaming device, you're just going to have to pick up a vita or be happy with the ios devices as they are.
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This is troubling. I just had a conversation with a guy in my office about how bluetooth controller on an iPad could be a game changer. This opens the door for devs to simply treat the iPAD as another screen. Imagine 'the real' Dead Space or Arkham City on iOS for a FULL priced app download. While those games might be just out of the technological range of an iPAD - maybe - consider playing them on your iPAD, with a proper controller, in sparkling retina display HD rez, then playing the same game on app store through your macbook HDMI out to TV, or through APPLE TV/iPAD.
