While many wait for new news to appear about that supposed Nintendo Switch-type console that Apple would be preparing, the only thing we can tell you related to video games and Apple is that in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 they have introduced a new virtual game control on the screen which is not a circuit breaker at all, but it is good news for all those who regularly play on the iPhone or iPad.
Apple improves the use of on-screen controls
{featureImage}
Making use of virtual buttons on the screen to, among other things, recreate the classic gamepad for consoles is nothing new. Many developers have been doing it for years with the idea of making the game easier for users. The problem is that there was no unified criterion and that in the end had its positive and negative side.
The good part is that the developers could add as many buttons as they thought necessary to make the gaming experience comfortable for the user. The bad part is that you did not end up assimilating where each button was, so when jumping from game to game you could spend a few minutes trying to adapt to the new controls.
Now that seems to change, because Apple has introduced a new API in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 that with a few lines of code will allow developers to display a series of controls designed by the company on the screen.
In this way, as if it were a physical command, the crosshead or control lever and buttons will always be in the same place. The only thing that will change will be the layout of the control itself depending on whether you want to add only one D-Pad or also a touch control, two or up to four buttons, etc.
With this, what is basically sought is that once adapted to the use of touch controls, the user can focus on the game and not on constantly looking whether or not he is pressing the appropriate button, if his thumbs are well positioned, etc.
Why not a physical Apple gamepad
It is likely that seeing the company’s commitment to trying to make Apple Arcade a much more important service, that its devices grow as a gaming platform, etc., why not launch a physical Apple gamepad.
Well, although on more than one occasion it has been commented on all this, of the creation of its own gamepad that could go as an extra or start-up addition to an Apple TV focused on games (which would act as that “console “of Apple that many expect), the truth is that it does not make much sense today.
There are already very good gamepads on the market that are easy to connect to the iPhone and iPad. Like the Xbox, PlayStation or even the specific Nimbus type, and for Apple it would mean getting into creating a product where they do not have much to contribute beyond putting the logo of the bitten apple.
So, unless there are any future surprises, to play on iPhone or iPad you will have to keep opting for one of these controllers or embrace these new on-screen controls that really look pretty good. At least in a much more elegant way and it seems that they will be much less distracting. So you can focus more on the game in question.