PAX 2013: Update on MFi Game Controllers, Coming Soon from Multiple Manufacturers

Apple announced at the iOS 7 reveal earlier this year that it would be bringing official support to iOS for Made for iOS (or MFi) game controllers. At the time, Apple was showing and giving developers access to a couple pre-release controllers behind closed doors.

While officially no more information has officially been released, I talked with multiple well known controller manufacturers at PAX and over the phone. And while non of them will officially comment on what products they may release since Apple has tight control on pre-release announcements, all indicated that they would have some interesting product announcements that we would be interested in within a couple weeks.

Many questions still remain on how the controller program will be managed and how it will be presented to the user. Will a special section in the App Store exist for controller games as we saw with the Gameloft/Discovery Bay Games controller? Will a special section of Game Center? Will Apple allow controller only games?

As far as pricing goes, it's safe to say that you can expect the initial releases to be on the premium end. Looking like the $75 range is the sweet spot to expect. But others will likely follow with more budget friendly prices.

I think we can safely assume that MFi controllers will be on store shelves soon after iOS 7 goes live, expected to be sometime around September 20th. We'll be keeping on top of this and get information out as soon as we can.

[ Photo credit: 9to5Mac ]