According to a TechCrunch report, Flipside – a Bluetooth video game controller case is making a second comeback after Apple announced support for Game Controller in iOS 7.
Key features of the Flipside include:
- The Flipside offers the ability to work as both case and controller for an iPhone, but can also work as a Bluetooth controller for Mac or PC, iPad, or Android tablet.
- Bluetooth 4.0 support
- Flipside is solar-powered, hence it can charge faster than the battery depletes. That built-in battery is also supposed to last 10 years.
“The Flipside was a Kickstarter project I covered last December, which aimed to create a Bluetooth video game controller case that charged via solar power and used low-power Bluetooth 4.0,” Darrell Etherington. “At the time, it had a very ambitious funding goal, and was hurt by the lack of official support for game pads in iOS. Now, it’s back on Indiegogo, with wind under its sails thanks to Apple’s inclusion of a universal game controller SDK in the upcoming iOS 7.”
According to the report, this is what Flipside creator Justice Frangipane has to say on the prospects of Flipside future success:
I think that if a controller like the ‘Flipside’ can gain momentum it will change handheld consoles globally. Currently Vita and the DS hold the serious gaming market because they have controls that support serious gaming needs. The iPhone doesn’t, but if you take a $40 game that currently sells to a market of a million and then you open that market to another 200 million consumers, you’ve just changed high end gaming.
…The reality is we are in a hundreds of millions of consumers market that is really just opening up for the very first time this fall. It’s going to be bigger than huge and I am really glad to be part of the pioneering few. There is a need out there so large that without question we can all be very successful at the same time. Then, I’m sure the market will decide within a few years what type of mobile controllers will and won’t be successful long-term.
“Flipside is available to Indiegogo backers for a starting pre-order pledge of $60, and the anticipated ship date is March 2014,” according to the report.
