This is just an opinion article and please take it as such. I welcome your opinions also.
We’ve seen the Xperia Play, the first real gaming phone to hit the market. I think personally the touch analogue sticks do nothing for making it a gaming experience. Yes there are some buttons and the d-pad, but who uses that nowadays? I think overall a better solution is needed.
This brings us to some of the clip on smartphone game pads. Makes sense in a lot of ways right? Sure but the portability may leave a little to be desired. We may see more of these phone joysticks come to market but so far it’s not mainstream by any stretch.
I really feel, and this is with some time to think it over, that having a portable Bluetooth gamepad slash joystick is ultimately the best way to game on your phone. The shortcoming of this however is that your smartphone needs to be stationary like sitting on a table. What about a kickstand? Could be part of the package included with the portable bluetooth joystick. But definitely I’m talking about something that is very small. Something as mini so that it will fit in a pocket. The benefit of such a joystick could be use cross platform usage for a gaming solution with a tablet and a smartphone. The clip on joystick solutions are a one trick pony. We will just have to wait and see what the designers can come up with. I’m sure some innovative designs are being considered. Portability, the ability to slide it into a pocket would be a key in the usability of a portable phone joystick.
I just think that for a Windows phone, they need to have the same configuration as the Xbox 360 controllers. It’s a lot of controls, and perhaps the dpad gets omitted, I’m not sure. I do believe that the 4 front facing buttons and the dual analogue is mandatory. The dpad? Perhaps, but can portability be maintained with all the functions we want?
Portable gamepads are the future for gaming on your phone.
April 1st, 2012This is just an opinion article and please take it as such. I welcome your opinions also.
We’ve seen the Xperia Play, the first real gaming phone to hit the market. I think personally the touch analogue sticks do nothing for making it a gaming experience. Yes there are some buttons and the d-pad, but who uses that nowadays? I think overall a better solution is needed.
This brings us to some of the clip on smartphone game pads. Makes sense in a lot of ways right? Sure but the portability may leave a little to be desired. We may see more of these phone joysticks come to market but so far it’s not mainstream by any stretch.
I really feel, and this is with some time to think it over, that having a portable Bluetooth gamepad slash joystick is ultimately the best way to game on your phone. The shortcoming of this however is that your smartphone needs to be stationary like sitting on a table. What about a kickstand? Could be part of the package included with the portable bluetooth joystick. But definitely I’m talking about something that is very small. Something as mini so that it will fit in a pocket. The benefit of such a joystick could be use cross platform usage for a gaming solution with a tablet and a smartphone. The clip on joystick solutions are a one trick pony. We will just have to wait and see what the designers can come up with. I’m sure some innovative designs are being considered. Portability, the ability to slide it into a pocket would be a key in the usability of a portable phone joystick.
I just think that for a Windows phone, they need to have the same configuration as the Xbox 360 controllers. It’s a lot of controls, and perhaps the dpad gets omitted, I’m not sure. I do believe that the 4 front facing buttons and the dual analogue is mandatory. The dpad? Perhaps, but can portability be maintained with all the functions we want?
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