And what symbols did the original Playstation use? X, a box, a 360 degree arc, and a triangle. Good thing Microsoft stopped short of using all four to name their console.
One of the main reasons the Wii sucked was the unorthodox controller. Gamers are use to the xbox/ps layout.
All game controllers are copies of previous controllers. you are grumbing about something for no reason. Being original and sacrificing playability is stupid for game controllers
Nah, the Wii remote was innovative, but like Apple, they wanted all games to be able to work with it, and not a standard controller configuration. So when games on other platforms require that standard 10 button, dual analog controller, they just can't be ported to the Wii without compromising the game play. With the Wii U they brought back the standard 10 button controls on the controller, so that means any game for the other platforms can also be ported to it.
However now we see Apple doing the "two button controller" bit again with the TV box. Sure you might be able to play games with the gamepad if it supports it, but because the games have to work with that Siri remote, that means you get some poor "alternate" interfaces like on-screen buttons.
Dasanman69 - You seem to be under the impression that Apple designed this controller. This is a third party accessory that is used to identify the fact that it will work with tvOS.
What benefit did we have when Apple made a digital music player with a scroll wheel? What benefit did we have when Apple made a smartphone with a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one? Why do controllers need 11 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad? The gaming controller is ripe for a reimagining, but neither Apple, nor none of the manufacturers did that.
What benefit did we have when Apple made a digital music player with a scroll wheel? What benefit did we have when Apple made a smartphone with a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one? Why do controllers need 11 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad? The gaming controller is ripe for a reimagining, but neither Apple, nor none of the manufacturers did that.
What makes you say that it's ripe for reimagining? What is wrong with current controllers? What benefits would such a reimagining bring?
There were very clear usability benefits to Apple's reimagining of the MP3 player and smartphone.
What benefit did we have when Apple made a digital music player with a scroll wheel? What benefit did we have when Apple made a smartphone with a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one? Why do controllers need 11 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad? The gaming controller is ripe for a reimagining, but neither Apple, nor none of the manufacturers did that.
What makes you say that it's ripe for reimagining? What is wrong with current controllers? What benefits would such a reimagining bring?
There were very clear usability benefits to Apple's reimagining of the MP3 player and smartphone.
They've been the same for over 20 years. Benefits are not known until after the fact. Apple didn't make the iPhone/iPod Touch to be used for games, but that didn't stop devs from creating games for it. This tells me that gaming is still unimportant for Apple
Give it a rest. You're just making yourself look foolish. Apple was (somewhat) original with the Siri remote. The controllers are third party. More importantly, as just about everyone else but you seems capable of understanding, game controllers are similar for an obvious reason. Gamers don't want to learn completely different controllers and button layouts for every console. Console companies have been "copying" each other for decades. To the BENEFIT of the user. And no one is complaining. No one is suing. You're just trying to be contrarian.
What benefit did we have when Apple made a digital music player with a scroll wheel? What benefit did we have when Apple made a smartphone with a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one? Why do controllers need 11 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad? The gaming controller is ripe for a reimagining, but neither Apple, nor none of the manufacturers did that.
You either didn't click my link, or you missed the point. Controllers are required to have a certain layout in order to be compatible with iOS. The layout is standardized, and the APIs for game developers to support a controller assume that the controller has that standard layout.
Why is that a benefit? Well, I'll tell you that, too. It's because if the layout is standardized, then games can actually use the controller. If every controller had a different complement of buttons, then every game that wanted to support a controller would have to add support for a whole bunch of conflicting controller layouts, and inevitably you'd end up with situations where Game A only supported Controller X, but Game B only supported Controller Y, and you'd have to base your controller purchasing decisions on which games you wanted to play, which is kind of a pain in the ass.
Give it a rest. You're just making yourself look foolish. Apple was (somewhat) original with the Siri remote. The controllers are third party. More importantly, as just about everyone else but you seems capable of understanding, game controllers are similar for an obvious reason. Gamers don't want to learn completely different controllers and button layouts for every console. Console companies have been "copying" each other for decades. To the BENEFIT of the user. And no one is complaining. No one is suing. You're just trying to be contrarian.
But all I keep hearing is how gaming on the ATV isn't for hardcore gamers, only for casual gamers. What casual gamer is going to want to learn use a convoluted controller for a simple casual game? Why do we need 8 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad to shoot birds at a structure containing pigs?
But all I keep hearing is how gaming on the ATV isn't for hardcore gamers, only for casual gamers. What casual gamer is going to want to learn use a convoluted controller for a simple casual game? Why do we need 8 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad to shoot birds at a structure containing pigs?
Casual gaming doesn't necessarily mean dumbed down gaming. I don't think Apple knows what to do with Apple TV, honestly. ATV4 is a weird tweener product. No longer a hobby, but not quite a fully realized product. There will be games that require more complex controls, or at the very least benefit from them. When it comes to game controllers, there is now, more or less, a standard design/layout that everyone follows. Companies have been "copying" each other's controllers for decades. Furthermore, Apple can't control third party controller designs, so if one of these companies rips of an Xbox or PS4 controller, that's on them, not Apple. Have you looked at how many third party controllers exist for PS4 and Xbox? They're all clones. If anything, I do think Apple borrowed from the Wii controller with the new Siri remote.
What benefit did we have when Apple made a digital music player with a scroll wheel? What benefit did we have when Apple made a smartphone with a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one? Why do controllers need 11 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad? The gaming controller is ripe for a reimagining, but neither Apple, nor none of the manufacturers did that.
You either didn't click my link, or you missed the point. Controllers are required to have a certain layout in order to be compatible with iOS. The layout is standardized, and the APIs for game developers to support a controller assume that the controller has that standard layout.
Why is that a benefit? Well, I'll tell you that, too. It's because if the layout is standardized, then games can actually use the controller. If every controller had a different complement of buttons, then every game that wanted to support a controller would have to add support for a whole bunch of conflicting controller layouts, and inevitably you'd end up with situations where Game A only supported Controller X, but Game B only supported Controller Y, and you'd have to base your controller purchasing decisions on which games you wanted to play, which is kind of a pain in the ass.
Do you know that there's already more games for iOS than have ever been made for ALL the consoles starting with the Atari to the current lineup of consoles, and how does one play those games? With a non-conventional, non-standardized way. Apple made something, devs created games for it, and people learned the various controls each one had.
Look, my issue isn't that Apple went the uninnovative, unimaginative and uninspiring route because they really don't care about gaming, but that doesn't mean that the controller manufacturers had to make an exact copy of the Xbox controller. Are you really going to sit there and tell me that Microsoft designed the perfect gaming controller? Do you want to go on record saying that Microsoft reached the pinnacle on the design of something?
my issue isn't that Apple went the uninnovative, unimaginative and uninspiring route because they really don't care about gaming, but that doesn't mean that the controller manufacturers had to make an exact copy of the Xbox controller.
The 3rd party manufacturers have to think about the scale of their operation. Their controllers are repurposed for multiple platforms, including the XBox 360 in the case of Mad Catz:
They'd have to setup a separate supply chain just for Apple products if it differed a lot from the versions for other platforms.
The number of buttons and layouts help developers port games from one platform to another with minimal changes. If a game has a sequence that says Press X to do something and one controller out of 4 platforms has that button called Y then you have to modify the game just for that setup. That's very irritating in games where they have a quicktime event and you have a keyboard mapped to a controller and it says Press J to avoid dying and you can't remember which button was mapped to J.
"The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted."
They were chosen to represent different actions commonly done in a game. Sony must have a copyright on that layout somewhere. Microsoft has a patent on some new layout that they haven't used:
Controllers today are all quite bulky, it would be nice to have a controller that would allow you to have almost all the control of a standard controller but could fit in your pocket so you could take it around with an iPad, just sit the iPad down somewhere in the smart cover and use the controller.
This kind of controller would be hard for 3rd parties to make because it requires touch input. You can see how badly huge PC companies make laptop touchpads, low-end peripheral manufacturers would be worse. It would really need Apple to make this but if they did this, nobody would buy the 3rd party controllers and they couldn't bundle it with the TV box unless it doubled as a remote. What they made was a controller that works well as a remote but is limited as a controller. It works ok for games though:
If you have games with basic inputs, it's all that's needed and very comfortable. You couldn't do that with the remote control on any other set-top box or streaming box. In a way, this is simplifying gaming for people and it goes back to the NES era of controls. The NES only had a d-pad and two buttons. Apple's remote has a touchpad, two buttons and motion (gyro/accelerometer) and it's controlled with one hand.
The remote as it is now will never allow you to control a first-person shooter well so it can never be the ultimate gaming controller. The 360-style controllers will never allow you to have a 1:1 mapping to the display so they are worse for certain games like Broken Sword ( ). That game is on the main consoles but you have to use the sticks to move an on-screen cursor.
If Apple's remote allowed 6 simultaneous inputs with a full surface touchpad and some shoulder buttons, that would have sufficed for every kind of game but for now, it will be best suited for iOS-style games and the 3rd party controllers are best for the FPS and other console-oriented games and having the 360 design allows 3rd party manufacturers to scale manufacturing to hit an affordable price and helps game compatibility.
Apple clearly isn't as serious about games as Microsoft, Sony or NIntendo and it's obvious why. There's a lot of revenue in the business but hardly any profit:
When quotes about billion-dollar industries are thrown around, they mean revenue. If they started quoting net income, things would be a lot different. Nintendo made $350m the whole year last year, Apple probably made that profit on the Watch in a single quarter and they make over $4b revenue from the App Store alone. The only people making serious money in games are the ones with massively popular franchises. If Apple had that Halo exclusive all those years ago maybe things would be different, they saw the potential that company had ( ). After Microsoft bought Bungie, Apple never took much interest in games and I don't think they've suffered much from it, especially not financially.
my issue isn't that Apple went the uninnovative, unimaginative and uninspiring route because they really don't care about gaming, but that doesn't mean that the controller manufacturers had to make an exact copy of the Xbox controller.
The 3rd party manufacturers have to think about the scale of their operation. Their controllers are repurposed for multiple platforms, including the XBox 360 in the case of Mad Catz:
They'd have to setup a separate supply chain just for Apple products if it differed a lot from the versions for other platforms.
The number of buttons and layouts help developers port games from one platform to another with minimal changes. If a game has a sequence that says Press X to do something and one controller out of 4 platforms has that button called Y then you have to modify the game just for that setup. That's very irritating in games where they have a quicktime event and you have a keyboard mapped to a controller and it says Press J to avoid dying and you can't remember which button was mapped to J.
"The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted."
They were chosen to represent different actions commonly done in a game. Sony must have a copyright on that layout somewhere. Microsoft has a patent on some new layout that they haven't used:
Controllers today are all quite bulky, it would be nice to have a controller that would allow you to have almost all the control of a standard controller but could fit in your pocket so you could take it around with an iPad, just sit the iPad down somewhere in the smart cover and use the controller.
This kind of controller would be hard for 3rd parties to make because it requires touch input. You can see how badly huge PC companies make laptop touchpads, low-end peripheral manufacturers would be worse. It would really need Apple to make this but if they did this, nobody would buy the 3rd party controllers and they couldn't bundle it with the TV box unless it doubled as a remote. What they made was a controller that works well as a remote but is limited as a controller. It works ok for games though:
If you have games with basic inputs, it's all that's needed and very comfortable. You couldn't do that with the remote control on any other set-top box or streaming box. In a way, this is simplifying gaming for people and it goes back to the NES era of controls. The NES only had a d-pad and two buttons. Apple's remote has a touchpad, two buttons and motion (gyro/accelerometer) and it's controlled with one hand.
The remote as it is now will never allow you to control a first-person shooter well so it can never be the ultimate gaming controller. The 360-style controllers will never allow you to have a 1:1 mapping to the display so they are worse for certain games like Broken Sword ( ). That game is on the main consoles but you have to use the sticks to move an on-screen cursor.
If Apple's remote allowed 6 simultaneous inputs with a full surface touchpad and some shoulder buttons, that would have sufficed for every kind of game but for now, it will be best suited for iOS-style games and the 3rd party controllers are best for the FPS and other console-oriented games and having the 360 design allows 3rd party manufacturers to scale manufacturing to hit an affordable price and helps game compatibility.
Apple clearly isn't as serious about games as Microsoft, Sony or NIntendo and it's obvious why. There's a lot of revenue in the business but hardly any profit:
When quotes about billion-dollar industries are thrown around, they mean revenue. If they started quoting net income, things would be a lot different. Nintendo made $350m the whole year last year, Apple probably made that profit on the Watch in a single quarter and they make over $4b revenue from the App Store alone. The only people making serious money in games are the ones with massively popular franchises. If Apple had that Halo exclusive all those years ago maybe things would be different, they saw the potential that company had ( ). After Microsoft bought Bungie, Apple never took much interest in games and I don't think they've suffered much from it, especially not financially.
There are games that play just as well with the ABXY of the Xbox and the triangle, circle, square, X of the playstation, so that point is moot. It's obviously quite simple to change button designations in a game.
If the serious players are not making money then why go after it half assed? If there's no money to be made then don't do it.
Who was making billions making music players, and smartphones? Nobody was. Did that stop Apple from going after those markers? Hindsight is 20/20 and Apple had absolutely no idea they'd become so profitable.
There are games that play just as well with the ABXY of the Xbox and the triangle, circle, square, X of the playstation, so that point is moot. It's obviously quite simple to change button designations in a game.
The developers on those platforms are almost all AAA developers or high-level Indie developers so a controller configuration is the least of their problems but it's still the simplest option to have them the same. You'd have to have a compelling reason to make them different and you haven't provided any. When a 3rd party controller manufacturer is churning out the same lettering for every controller they make for every platform and nobody is asking for it to change then they have no reason to change it. Lenovo made a controller for a Smart TV in 2012 with a touch pad and different lettering:
The lettering change doesn't look very helpful or necessary. At least Sony's had some meaning behind the design but it's still easier to remember lettering order. Shapes have no inherent order.
It's not right that 3rd party companies copy mainstream controller designs but this hasn't started with iOS. These controllers have been made this way for PC, consoles and Android years ago:
If the serious players are not making money then why go after it half assed? If there's no money to be made then don't do it.
It's not that there's no money, there's very little profit (relatively). Any profit in the millions is worth doing for a small company and billions in revenue can support the staff. Apple isn't doing serious games at all, they neither make games nor standard controllers, all they've done is provided a spec and a platform. If the controllers and serious games don't sell, it doesn't affect them much at all. The success of serious games on the new ?TV lies solely in the hands of developers and the 3rd party controller manufacturers.
I think dansanman is just trolling you guys. He can go invent a new controller if he even has a half formed idea of what he is talking about...
Here's the thing. If Apple had built a gaming console, and designed a controller (even if they had taken cues from previous controllers) and another company build a gaming platform in which 3rd party companies made a controller identical to Apple's you'd all be screaming bloody murder. All copying is wrong, not just when Apple gets copied.
Here's the thing. If Apple had built a gaming console, and designed a controller (even if they had taken cues from previous controllers) and another company build a gaming platform in which 3rd party companies made a controller identical to Apple's you'd all be screaming bloody murder. All copying is wrong, not just when Apple gets copied.
Android had these controllers first though, your complaints were unsurprisingly absent before now:
Apple didn't add controller support until 2013 when games controllers had already been on the market for a while. Also, this is an issue between 3rd party controller manufacturers and Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo, none of whom the people on this forum particularly care about. This is of more concern for the gaming crowd:
Here's the thing. If Apple had built a gaming console, and designed a controller (even if they had taken cues from previous controllers) and another company build a gaming platform in which 3rd party companies made a controller identical to Apple's you'd all be screaming bloody murder. All copying is wrong, not just when Apple gets copied.
Android had these controllers first though, your complaints were unsurprisingly absent before now:
Apple didn't add controller support until 2013 when games controllers had already been on the market for a while. Also, this is an issue between 3rd party controller manufacturers and Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo, none of whom the people on this forum particularly care about. This is of more concern for the gaming crowd:
Here's the thing. If Apple had built a gaming console, and designed a controller (even if they had taken cues from previous controllers) and another company build a gaming platform in which 3rd party companies made a controller identical to Apple's you'd all be screaming bloody murder. All copying is wrong, not just when Apple gets copied.
We're are talking about third party controllers. Of course they copy. In addition, if not the ABXY configuration, does each third party pick their own set of characters/symbols? It's to get familiarity for the consumers. Apple isn't making controllers.
Here's the thing. If Apple had built a gaming console, and designed a controller (even if they had taken cues from previous controllers) and another company build a gaming platform in which 3rd party companies made a controller identical to Apple's you'd all be screaming bloody murder. All copying is wrong, not just when Apple gets copied.
We're are talking about third party controllers. Of course they copy. In addition, if not the ABXY configuration, does each third party pick their own set of characters/symbols? It's to get familiarity for the consumers. Apple isn't making controllers.
But Apple made the guidelines which tells the manufacturing what lettering to use.
Comments
Nah, the Wii remote was innovative, but like Apple, they wanted all games to be able to work with it, and not a standard controller configuration. So when games on other platforms require that standard 10 button, dual analog controller, they just can't be ported to the Wii without compromising the game play. With the Wii U they brought back the standard 10 button controls on the controller, so that means any game for the other platforms can also be ported to it.
However now we see Apple doing the "two button controller" bit again with the TV box. Sure you might be able to play games with the gamepad if it supports it, but because the games have to work with that Siri remote, that means you get some poor "alternate" interfaces like on-screen buttons.
Show me where I said that?
What benefit did we have when Apple made a digital music player with a scroll wheel? What benefit did we have when Apple made a smartphone with a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one? Why do controllers need 11 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad? The gaming controller is ripe for a reimagining, but neither Apple, nor none of the manufacturers did that.
There were very clear usability benefits to Apple's reimagining of the MP3 player and smartphone.
They've been the same for over 20 years. Benefits are not known until after the fact. Apple didn't make the iPhone/iPod Touch to be used for games, but that didn't stop devs from creating games for it. This tells me that gaming is still unimportant for Apple
Give it a rest. You're just making yourself look foolish. Apple was (somewhat) original with the Siri remote. The controllers are third party. More importantly, as just about everyone else but you seems capable of understanding, game controllers are similar for an obvious reason. Gamers don't want to learn completely different controllers and button layouts for every console. Console companies have been "copying" each other for decades. To the BENEFIT of the user. And no one is complaining. No one is suing. You're just trying to be contrarian.
Why is that a benefit? Well, I'll tell you that, too. It's because if the layout is standardized, then games can actually use the controller. If every controller had a different complement of buttons, then every game that wanted to support a controller would have to add support for a whole bunch of conflicting controller layouts, and inevitably you'd end up with situations where Game A only supported Controller X, but Game B only supported Controller Y, and you'd have to base your controller purchasing decisions on which games you wanted to play, which is kind of a pain in the ass.
But all I keep hearing is how gaming on the ATV isn't for hardcore gamers, only for casual gamers. What casual gamer is going to want to learn use a convoluted controller for a simple casual game? Why do we need 8 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad to shoot birds at a structure containing pigs?
But all I keep hearing is how gaming on the ATV isn't for hardcore gamers, only for casual gamers. What casual gamer is going to want to learn use a convoluted controller for a simple casual game? Why do we need 8 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a D pad to shoot birds at a structure containing pigs?
Casual gaming doesn't necessarily mean dumbed down gaming. I don't think Apple knows what to do with Apple TV, honestly. ATV4 is a weird tweener product. No longer a hobby, but not quite a fully realized product. There will be games that require more complex controls, or at the very least benefit from them. When it comes to game controllers, there is now, more or less, a standard design/layout that everyone follows. Companies have been "copying" each other's controllers for decades. Furthermore, Apple can't control third party controller designs, so if one of these companies rips of an Xbox or PS4 controller, that's on them, not Apple. Have you looked at how many third party controllers exist for PS4 and Xbox? They're all clones. If anything, I do think Apple borrowed from the Wii controller with the new Siri remote.
Do you know that there's already more games for iOS than have ever been made for ALL the consoles starting with the Atari to the current lineup of consoles, and how does one play those games? With a non-conventional, non-standardized way. Apple made something, devs created games for it, and people learned the various controls each one had.
Look, my issue isn't that Apple went the uninnovative, unimaginative and uninspiring route because they really don't care about gaming, but that doesn't mean that the controller manufacturers had to make an exact copy of the Xbox controller. Are you really going to sit there and tell me that Microsoft designed the perfect gaming controller? Do you want to go on record saying that Microsoft reached the pinnacle on the design of something?
The 3rd party manufacturers have to think about the scale of their operation. Their controllers are repurposed for multiple platforms, including the XBox 360 in the case of Mad Catz:
http://store.madcatz.com/categories/controllers-category/
They'd have to setup a separate supply chain just for Apple products if it differed a lot from the versions for other platforms.
The number of buttons and layouts help developers port games from one platform to another with minimal changes. If a game has a sequence that says Press X to do something and one controller out of 4 platforms has that button called Y then you have to modify the game just for that setup. That's very irritating in games where they have a quicktime event and you have a keyboard mapped to a controller and it says Press J to avoid dying and you can't remember which button was mapped to J.
The Playstation button icons are interesting:
http://gizmodo.com/5622157/what-do-the-playstations-circle-x-square-and-triangle-buttons-mean
"The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted."
They were chosen to represent different actions commonly done in a game. Sony must have a copyright on that layout somewhere. Microsoft has a patent on some new layout that they haven't used:
http://www.igameresponsibly.com/2014/01/24/microsoft-patents-new-xbox-controller-iconography/
Controllers today are all quite bulky, it would be nice to have a controller that would allow you to have almost all the control of a standard controller but could fit in your pocket so you could take it around with an iPad, just sit the iPad down somewhere in the smart cover and use the controller.
This kind of controller would be hard for 3rd parties to make because it requires touch input. You can see how badly huge PC companies make laptop touchpads, low-end peripheral manufacturers would be worse. It would really need Apple to make this but if they did this, nobody would buy the 3rd party controllers and they couldn't bundle it with the TV box unless it doubled as a remote. What they made was a controller that works well as a remote but is limited as a controller. It works ok for games though:
http://kotaku.com/the-new-apple-tv-is-the-beginning-of-a-nifty-little-gam-1739766204
[VIDEO]
If you have games with basic inputs, it's all that's needed and very comfortable. You couldn't do that with the remote control on any other set-top box or streaming box. In a way, this is simplifying gaming for people and it goes back to the NES era of controls. The NES only had a d-pad and two buttons. Apple's remote has a touchpad, two buttons and motion (gyro/accelerometer) and it's controlled with one hand.
The remote as it is now will never allow you to control a first-person shooter well so it can never be the ultimate gaming controller. The 360-style controllers will never allow you to have a 1:1 mapping to the display so they are worse for certain games like Broken Sword (
If Apple's remote allowed 6 simultaneous inputs with a full surface touchpad and some shoulder buttons, that would have sufficed for every kind of game but for now, it will be best suited for iOS-style games and the 3rd party controllers are best for the FPS and other console-oriented games and having the 360 design allows 3rd party manufacturers to scale manufacturing to hit an affordable price and helps game compatibility.
Apple clearly isn't as serious about games as Microsoft, Sony or NIntendo and it's obvious why. There's a lot of revenue in the business but hardly any profit:
http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/1/3439738/the-state-of-games-state-of-aaa
When quotes about billion-dollar industries are thrown around, they mean revenue. If they started quoting net income, things would be a lot different. Nintendo made $350m the whole year last year, Apple probably made that profit on the Watch in a single quarter and they make over $4b revenue from the App Store alone. The only people making serious money in games are the ones with massively popular franchises. If Apple had that Halo exclusive all those years ago maybe things would be different, they saw the potential that company had (
There are games that play just as well with the ABXY of the Xbox and the triangle, circle, square, X of the playstation, so that point is moot. It's obviously quite simple to change button designations in a game.
If the serious players are not making money then why go after it half assed? If there's no money to be made then don't do it.
Who was making billions making music players, and smartphones? Nobody was. Did that stop Apple from going after those markers? Hindsight is 20/20 and Apple had absolutely no idea they'd become so profitable.
The developers on those platforms are almost all AAA developers or high-level Indie developers so a controller configuration is the least of their problems but it's still the simplest option to have them the same. You'd have to have a compelling reason to make them different and you haven't provided any. When a 3rd party controller manufacturer is churning out the same lettering for every controller they make for every platform and nobody is asking for it to change then they have no reason to change it. Lenovo made a controller for a Smart TV in 2012 with a touch pad and different lettering:
http://www.slashgear.com/lenovo-k91-smart-tv-hands-on-impressions-08207483/
The lettering change doesn't look very helpful or necessary. At least Sony's had some meaning behind the design but it's still easier to remember lettering order. Shapes have no inherent order.
It's not right that 3rd party companies copy mainstream controller designs but this hasn't started with iOS. These controllers have been made this way for PC, consoles and Android years ago:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/29/mad-catz-mlg-pro-circuit-controller-review-ps3/ - copying PS symbols, sticks and layout
Mad Catz at once point had all circles on an Android model but that's not so good for people who are color blind:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gaming/games-consoles/mad-catz-mojo-android-console-1158913/review
It's not that there's no money, there's very little profit (relatively). Any profit in the millions is worth doing for a small company and billions in revenue can support the staff. Apple isn't doing serious games at all, they neither make games nor standard controllers, all they've done is provided a spec and a platform. If the controllers and serious games don't sell, it doesn't affect them much at all. The success of serious games on the new ?TV lies solely in the hands of developers and the 3rd party controller manufacturers.
Here's the thing. If Apple had built a gaming console, and designed a controller (even if they had taken cues from previous controllers) and another company build a gaming platform in which 3rd party companies made a controller identical to Apple's you'd all be screaming bloody murder. All copying is wrong, not just when Apple gets copied.
Android had these controllers first though, your complaints were unsurprisingly absent before now:
http://techland.time.com/2012/12/04/review-android-game-controllers-turn-phones-and-tablets-into-portable-gaming-systems/
Apple didn't add controller support until 2013 when games controllers had already been on the market for a while. Also, this is an issue between 3rd party controller manufacturers and Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo, none of whom the people on this forum particularly care about. This is of more concern for the gaming crowd:
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/so-nintendo-fanboys-how-does-it-feel-that-they-copied-the-xbox-360-controller.452513205/ (2012)
I can't complain about something I was unaware of, but looking through the comments on IGN I see I'm not alone
We're are talking about third party controllers. Of course they copy. In addition, if not the ABXY configuration, does each third party pick their own set of characters/symbols? It's to get familiarity for the consumers. Apple isn't making controllers.
But Apple made the guidelines which tells the manufacturing what lettering to use.