MariOS is happening. Well, no, not really, but the iOS 16 beta for iPhones comes with Pro Con and Joy Con support.
The Nintendo Switch range of controllers have long avoided support on the iPhone, which already had Xbox controller and PlayStation controller support. Nintendo is invited to the party now, too.
As discovered by app developer Riley Testut, and as originally reported by The Verge, iPhones running the iOS 16 beta natively support Nintendo Switch controllers.
!!! iOS 16 natively supports Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers!!
Can confirm they work perfectly with Delta 😍 pic.twitter.com/p8u1sdjvTt
— Riles 🤷♂️ (@rileytestut) June 6, 2022
Testut went on to confirm that the support works well with Delta, a SNES, N64 and Game Boy emulator for iOS.
The official support was later confirmed by Nat Brown, an engineer at Apple. Brown added instructions on how to get the Joy Cons to work in tandem on iOS 16.
Test away. Lmk if you hit any issues. With both paired, hold the bottom face buttons (left “capture”, right “home”) for a few seconds to join the Joy Cons into one controller and do it again to split them.
— Nat Brown (@natbro) June 6, 2022
YES, when you connect both joy-cons they appear as a single MFi Controller to apps!
Apple seriously killed it with this implementation, this is incredible 👏 https://t.co/Lz7JQWzAN6 pic.twitter.com/tUES8lh2zD
— Riles 🤷♂️ (@rileytestut) June 7, 2022
With support for Joy Cons, there could be a big place for app development around the unique Nintendo Switch controller layout. If you don’t know, the Joy Con is the attachable Nintendo Switch controller that can be split in two, so that two people can play, albeit with smaller controls. It’s a terrific party game function.
It’s difficult to say if this has any implications for Apple at the moment, a company that has long avoided taking gaming seriously apart from its Apple Arcade gaming subscription service. Even though a big part of Apple’s WWDC conference focused on gaming and trying to pitch the Mac platform to developers, Apple strangely excluded support for Switch controllers on iOS from their announcements, something we’d have loved to see. The iOS platform has heaps of games that can leverage controller support (Call of Duty: Mobile immediately comes to mind) and maybe soon we’ll see apps that can utilise the split function of the Joy Con controllers.
I’m excited to see what iOS app developers can do with Pro Con and Joy Con support. Phone gaming is only getting more impressive.
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