Would Mobile Phone Gaming with Real Controls be better?

[scotland]

Here is a product on one of those direct from China sellers:

8GB phone console 2.jpg (14.75 KiB) Viewed 2141 times

This is the first I've seen where an Android OS portable video game has also included the phone feature. The unit has the usual controllers for mobile phones for touch and tilt, but now includes the dual analog sticks, D-pad, etc you might want for your portable gaming. If you personally are okay with emulation, then this might give you ideas (but let's not start one of those conversations please)

The quality of this might phone portable (phortable) might be awful; I have no idea and I'm not endorsing anyone go buy one. What it does is let me think that a more mainstream phone manufacturer might see the sales benefit of putting on standard portable controls on their mobile phone.

[Vexer6]

There are controllers you can connect to Android devices like the Moga.

[Tron]

if it were made by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo I might be interested. I'd still want cartridges though so that ain't gonna happen.

[David]

Scotland - If you remember a few years back, Sony did make a phone with Playstation controls. I don't remember it doing very well. The controls were hidden underneath and slid out, and had digital pads where analog sticks would normally be. I believe it was Verizon only and I wasn't on Verizon at the time, or else I may have gotten it.

[JustLikeHeaven]

I've got a smart phone, and an iPad. The games on these things are not good. Even the best ones don't come near typical portable gaming standards. Also, most of them are either free to play with ads or schemes to make you spend money to play more. I no longer use either of my devices for standard videogames. The only thing I use them for are digital implementations of board games like Talisman, Carcassone, CATAN, Magic: The Gathering, Pandemic etc... The touch interface works well with the typical turn based nature of board games. Also Hearthstone is good...but that is essentially a collectible card game that never came out in a physical form.

I really don't think adding controls is going to help all that much. The games seem to be designed to be time wasters at best...and money sinks at worst. I know people that have sunk over $100 into Clash of Clans. Thats nuts!

[Atarifever]

We had one already. It was called the N-Gage (and the better Ngage QD). Great form factor. Pretty decent controls (given the time). Some truly great portable games no one knows existed. Online games (designed perfectly around network speeds of the time) playable anywhere in 2003! All of it delivered by one of the two (very rich) companies in the world at the time synonymous with Smartphones.

It didn't do well. Back when there was a reason for it to exist. Given that even my car manufacturer seems to think touch screens you have to look at while driving that light up the inside of the car at night are a great idea, I don't think the average consumer would see the benefit of the controls. Further, given the money currently being made in the app store, I don't think game designers will see the benefit either.

If the Ngage had succeeded, this would likely be a thing. There would likely be a market for a different category of device called "gaming phones" or somesuch. The moment has now passed, and Smartphone gaming is now what it is ever going to be. Until the change (whatever it is) happens some time in the next ten years or so that makes "Smartphones" seem idiotic and old (my guess is something big in the wearable sector).

[Vexer6]

I tried the N-Gage out back when it was on display at Gamestop, and I thought the controls were terrible, not to mention the game selection did not look very impressive, so I had zero interest in it.

[Tina]

I still have my trusty flip phone that can sit in my purse for days on end without a charge. I use it as a phone, wow. Next time you're out and about, look how many have their heads down focusing on a smartphone. It's staggering, I can't imagine adding controls to the things. No thanks.
I like my little ds, researching the latest one.

[Atarifever]

I tried the N-Gage out back when it was on display at Gamestop, and I thought the controls were terrible, not to mention the game selection did not look very impressive, so I had zero interest in it.

The game selection ended up quite good, with some very impressive exclusives (especially for RTS games). As for the controls, you have to remember it was competing with the GBA, so the dPad and two buttons (especially with the better set up on the QD) with extraneous function keys was pretty par for the course. It could probably have used some shoulder buttons, but that would probably have been odd button placement for a phone at the time.

I hope one day the general gaming public realizes the diamond in the rough they all missed with that system. To this day, I can name games I loved that none of you ever heard of. Glimmerati, System Rush, Rifts: Promise of Power, Pocket Kingdoms (one of Sega's last great original games), Pathway to Glory 1 and 2, One, Ashen, Catan (the first version), high Seize, Mile High Pinball, etc. So many great games, played by so few people.

[Atarifever]

I tried the N-Gage out back when it was on display at Gamestop, and I thought the controls were terrible, not to mention the game selection did not look very impressive, so I had zero interest in it.

The game selection ended up quite good, with some very impressive exclusives (especially for RTS games). As for the controls, you have to remember it was competing with the GBA, so the dPad and two buttons (especially with the better set up on the QD) with extraneous function keys was pretty par for the course. It could probably have used some shoulder buttons, but that would probably have been odd button placement for a phone at the time.

I hope one day the general gaming public realizes the diamond in the rough they all missed with that system. To this day, I can name games I loved that none of you ever heard of. Glimmerati, System Rush, Rifts: Promise of Power, Pocket Kingdoms (one of Sega's last great original games), Pathway to Glory 1 and 2, One, Ashen, Catan (the first version), high Seize, Mile High Pinball, etc. So many great games, played by so few people.