Nintendo Considering Creating Physical Controllers for Smartphones and Tablets - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Nintendo Considering Creating Physical Controllers for Smartphones and Tablets

by

As a part of its push into mobile gaming, Nintendo is considering creating physical controllers and other kinds of hardware for different types of mobile games and experiences, reports Polygon. Shinya Takahashi, Nintendo's general manager of entertainment planning and development, discussed the possibility at the company's annual shareholders meeting.

nintendo_iphones

"Physical controllers for smart device applications are available in the market and it is possible that we may also develop something new by ourselves," Takahashi said. "I believe Nintendo's way of thinking is to look at whether action games are really not impossible (without a physical controller for smart device applications) to create and how we can make it happen to create such a game."

In the console and handheld gaming spaces, Nintendo has taken to crafting unique controllers that the company can take advantage of with its first-party games. Nintendo's unique controllers include a reverse trident design, motion control remotes and dual-screen handhelds.

Apple added support for iOS game controllers with iOS 7, expanding its Made for iPhone program to include game controller accessories. More recently, the company dropped its requirement for tvOS games to support the Siri Remote, allowing game developers to create more complex games for the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Nintendo also reiterated its commitment to create mobile app experiences that aren't games, like its social lifestyle game / app Miitomo. The company still has plans to release five smartphone games by March 2017, with Miitomo already released and Pokemon GO set to debut later this month. Smartphone games based on Nintendo franchises Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing will arrive later this year.

Top Rated Comments

drumcat Avatar
127 months ago
No Super Mario Bros, no point. Why is this so hard?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
127 months ago
YES. This is the biggest reason gaming hasn't worked on mobile. Every controller currently available is subpar and overpriced. Give me a real controller with real games and I'll gladly pay ~$50 for the games like I do on my Wii U right now.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmh600cbr Avatar
127 months ago
how about just for apple tv?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TechZeke Avatar
127 months ago
No Super Mario Bros, no point. Why is this so hard?
Exactly. All the hell Nintendo has to do is make a controller attachment for iDevices and give proper Nintendo full titles. Modern tablets and phones will smoke a 3DS, and games would look gorgeous on the Retina display. I understand wanting to sell their own hardware, but only purists and Nintendo lovers buy 3DSs anyway.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
127 months ago
i spent more on nintendo controllers/accessories than actually buying the console
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pakaku Avatar
127 months ago
If they are going to make announcements like this, then they should just close shop and liquidate theirs assets and IP. So sad what they've become...
They have enough money to sustain themselves for quite a long time, loss or not, so they can afford to take risks and experiment on a lot of things. Selling out would be one of the worst business decisions they could make at the moment.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Apple Logo Sketch Feature

Apple Has Now Unveiled Eight New Products This Month

Tuesday March 17, 2026 9:25 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping eight new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and now the AirPods Max 2 this week. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's...
ios 26 4 yellow

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for iOS 26.4

Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update. Apple Music - Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...