Gamevice for iPhone Coming This Year for $99
This week just keeps getting better! After yesterday’s cavalcade of news, Gamevice has one more big announcement to add: The Gamevice for iPhone will be coming in the next few months!
Much like the excellent iPad Gamevice, the iPhone Gamevice uses a classic plus-shaped d-pad, and features two real analog sticks positioned above the ABXY buttons. Circle pad / analog nub haters have nothing to worry about here: the Gamevice uses REAL console-grade analog sticks.
The Gamevice for iPhone uses a smart-cover-style folding rubber piece in the middle to hold it’s two halves together, rather than the single-piece bendable rubber of the larger Gamevice. This means that the same exact Gamevice can work with both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus – no need to lock yourself into one or the other. The newly announced iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus are also fully supported, of course.
Much like the recently revealed Nimbus controller, the Gamevice for iPhone charges over Lightning, rather than the Micro USB connection used by the larger Gamevice. It seems like Apple’s MFi spec has changed to accommodate Lightning charging in controllers, which should be welcome for people who otherwise wouldn’t need a Micro USB cable.
I had a chance to hold a very early prototype of the Gamevice for iPhone a long time ago, back at CES. It wasn’t actually connected to anything, so I can’t make any judgements on how well it plays, but I can vouch for the fact that the layout felt comfortable. Separating the two halves via a folding bridge works as well as you would hope. It’s a clever move, and it makes for a potentially more future-proof design than the larger Gamevice.
The Gamevice for iPhone goes on sale within the next few months for the same $99 price as the larger iPad model. I expect we’ll hear a lot more about this controller in the near future, as release approaches. Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on one. If this controller is even half as good as their iPad model, we’re in for a real treat.
The Gamevice for iPad Air also gets a firm release date: October 2015 – next month! If you’ve been looking forward to the iPad Air model, the wait is nearly over.
I’ll have an extensive review of this Gamevice, as well as the other Gamevice models, as soon as possible.