Is Apple really working on its own game controller?

By Oliver Haslam
last updated

Sayonara Wild Hearts and Apple Arcade with a DualShock 4 controller
Sayonara Wild Hearts and Apple Arcade with a DualShock 4 controller (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

What you need to know

  • New claims have Apple working on a first-party game controller.
  • Further information wasn't provided, but this would likely be for Apple TV.
  • This leaker has previously been correct when predicting iPhone and iPad Pro products.

Apple is working on bringing its own game controller to market if a previously reliable leaker is to be believed. The anonymous Twitter account L0vetodream made the claim during an information dump overnight.

In one of many tweets, the leaker claimed that Apple has already been developing its own controller, although no information about its intended target device was shared. We do have a timeframe though, with "this year or next year" offered up.

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Apple's devices already support multiple game controllers including those from the likes of Sony and Microsoft. But Apple does like to have full control over anything and everything so selling its own controller isn't beyond the realms of possibility. It would likely be aimed at Apple TV users but with support for iOS and Mac also thrown into the mix.

While it's impossible to know whether there is any truth to this claim, L0vetodream has previously been able to predict the arrival of the new iPhone SE as well as this year's iPad Pro Magic Keyboard.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.