We were excited to hear that Apple iPhone and iPod Touch would be getting “third party game accessories” yesterday. No sooner did that bombshell drop than a third-party iPhone game controller dutifully showed up. Behold the frankly weird looking GameBone Pro controller, which aims to bring six buttons and an 8-way direction pad to your Apple handset.
Created by Aussie iPhone developer, 22moo, GameBone Pro’s specs include dual connectivity, allowing you to use either wireless Bluetooth or the iPhone dock connector. Cleverly, there’s a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery on board, which will support your depressingly finite iPhone battery life using the GameBone Pro’s own juice.
GameBone Pro also has integrated mic and speakers, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack, and will come with a support stand for your handset. In other words, it’s hell bent on transforming your handheld gaming device into something better suited for sedentary gaming, but hopefully it’ll manage it without completely killing the portability.
In an interesting move, GameBone Pro’s creators are taking suggestions for how the controller should be priced. But no matter what the price, the value for money will depend heavily on the quality of compatible games. A quick look through 22moo’s other iTunes App store efforts doesn’t leave us brimming with confidence although it’s throwing out the SDK to other iPhone devs shortly.
So would you splash out on an iPhone Bluetooth game controller that looks like a dog toy? Let us know below.
Out September | £TBA | GameBone Pro (via Kotaku)
