Apple has long been adamant that a touch surface should be enough for mobile gamers. This attitude was a holdover from when Steve Jobs still held the reins of the company, when his concepts of elegance, simplicity, and aestheticism ruled the day.
Things have changed, though, and with the introduction of iOS 7, Apple is opening up their popular mobile phone to external, hardware, gamepad solutions. It appears that the first to take advantage of this will be Logitech, if a blurry image captured by Kotaku is to be believed.
Much like the reference images Apple put out for gamepad development, it appears to have a D-Pad (though a circular one) and four face buttons, with a large gap between into which an iPhone can be inserted. It isn’t clear whether or not it has shoulder buttons.
Could this turn the iPhone into a more direct competitor to the 3DS and Vita? It certainly means classic games like Secret of Mana will actually be playable, and that’s reason enough for excitement.