With mobile gaming, what was once the market that the likes of Sega, Sony and Nintendo dominated is now wide open for the taking. With its huge collection of games and devices selling like the proverbial hotcakes, it’s safe to say that Apple is a real mobile gaming player at this point, if you pardon the rather heavy-handed pun.
With that in mind, it’s a wonder that it’s taken the Cupertino firm so long to really grok the idea of handheld gaming controllers that interact with the iPhone and iPad, but with iOS 7 it seems that it might just be getting around to it.
Now officially offering the standardization of game controllers for the iOS platform, iOS 7 makes it easier for companies to make their controllers work with the best games, and just as importantly, it means the developers of those games can leverage controllers, too.
One developer, Unity, has announced that it is now going to add support for game controllers for those that are using iOS 7. Unity makes a game development system by the same name, so support for game controllers is a pretty big thing.
Like most mobile games developers, we’ve been closely following what important additions and changes the recently released iOS 7 update has made. One of the biggest and most exciting of Apple’s initiatives is the standardization of game controllers for iOS-based platforms. So we’re happy to tell you that, in addition to several important bug fixes for Xcode 5 / iOS 7 (Build&Run, WebCamTexture and status bar), Apple Controller support is included with 4.2.2!
With Apple set to announce its new iPads at a suspected October 22nd event, we suspect game controllers, like the recently leaked from Logitech and GameCase, may make an appearance, perhaps as part of an overly long on-stage demo. Apple does so enjoy those.
Mobile gaming is a big industry, and the App Store is choc-full of games. Making support for game controllers an easier task for both developers and hardware makers is sure to be one of the biggest un-sung features of iOS 7.
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