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PhoneJoy Play transforms smartphone to handheld gaming console, fund it now

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We’ve seen quite a few controller peripherals for Android devices, but we haven’t quite seen anything like the PhoneJoy Play. The latest accessory from PhoneJoy takes everything great about their previous wireless gamepad for Android and combines it with a simple, intuitive mounting system to create a handheld console experience using any smartphone.

The PhoneJoy Play appears like a portable gamepad at first glance, but once you pull apart its two halves to reveal the proprietary easy slider mechanism it becomes much more. The Play can accept any smartphone in portrait or landscape mode, including big boys like the Galaxy Note 2. Once docked your handset takes on a second life as a powerful gaming machine.

What about the games? The PhoneJoy crew is providing an SDK for developers to directly integrate Play controls into their upcoming and available titles. For everything else, an app included with the Play allows for quick and easy configuration of controls. It seems like they thought of everything.

The PhoneJoy pay looks to be one of the most intuitive and unique gamepad experience we have ever seen for Android, and you can be a part of making it a reality. Kickstarter funding just went live, giving all the option to pick up the Play for as little as $50. Provided enough people contribute, the controller ships in April.

 

Kevin Krause
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26 Comments

  1. I think… I’m in.

  2. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INCLUDING THE GALAXY NOTE 2 IN THIS

    1. This is a great little device. I personally prefer the simplicity and looks of the ps3 controller, which also works great on my Note 2 wirelessly. Good to see more options poppin!

  3. The bottom right joystick looks really awkward and uncomfortable without more palm support.

  4. Make it fit a 7″ tablet and you have a winner

    1. The Nexus7 in portrait is only 120mm wide, and the kickstarter page says it will fit phones up to 153mm.

      1. How many good games are played in portrait?

        1. Well in my opinion there really aren’t any “good” mobile games that would require a controller like this outside of emulators. And most emulators let you choose portrait or landscape.

          But I guess it just depends on what games you like.

      2. I was thinking that if this will fit a Nexus 7 in portrait mode (and other 7″ tablets), they really should be mentioning this in any promotionals. However, landscape mode is the way most action games get played.

    2. Just set the tablet on a stand or something and hold a controller! Yeah, you can just buy a regular controller to work with your tablet yes, but you can use this for your phone and tablet.

  5. I’ll admit it does look unique. But that console just looks creepy to me.

  6. I like it! I’ve never used Kickstarter before, but I’ll try it out now.

    1. Hardware projects rarely ship on time. This seems to be well thought out, but they are still a young company.

      1. Yeah, I’m not too worried about the time as long as it’s reasonable and not months late I guess. They seemed to have everything together though.

        1. It won’t be “months” late, it will be about a dozen months late.

          Hardly anything from kickstarter comes to fruition, but they’re happy to take your cash.

  7. Why are these controllers so much?

    1. Small startups have to get them produced. People like Nyko have deals with big factories for tens of thousands (if not more) of units, and can keep the production costs down. But the smaller the batch, the more they cost per unit. I’d assume this one falls under the basic rules of supply and demand. If they had 1 million people pledging to buy, they could lower production costs and likely sell them for $40 or even $30 a pop and still make a nice profit.

  8. Portable hacksaw?

  9. OK, color me impressed. I was thinking what a cramp-o-matic that was until I saw how it split.

  10. I really hope they make the software work well with the device. Bought a phonejoy controller (ps3 look alike) from them before that I never used as the regular ps3 with sixaxis app worked so much better with the button mapping. I dont know if phonejoy ever updated their app but I never looked back after sixaxis. But this device looks promising.

  11. Hmm… For $50!? Hmm… I can see that price. Seeing as it’s highly compatible with almost every device. Not a bad deal. This could be way more portable than a PS3 controller.

  12. Oh!! The buttons say “PLAY”. =.P

  13. Hideous.

    Until you open it. Haha

  14. Does it use bluetooth

  15. Already bought two different controllers, the Zeemote and Gamepad, both are far too fiddly to get working, probably the same here.

  16. Is it working same as playstation E1004 gaming console

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