A new patent published on 26 July 2012, indicates that Apple may soon be competing with Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo in the gaming field. Despite having a huge collections of games on its iOS platform, there is no support for a physical game controller. However, this may change based on this new patent. Apple is looking at enabling gameplay using a DualShock-style controller. The patent titled – System and Method for Simplified Control of Electronic devices is going to allow various inputs and interactions between iPhones, iPods, Apple TVs and a DaulShock-style controller via NFC.
FIG. 6 illustrates a game controller 84 for use with a video gaming system, the computer 62, or the standalone media player 68. The game controller 84 may represent another embodiment of the electronic device.
FIG. 4 depicts a standalone media player 68 representing another embodiment of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 that may be configured to operate using the techniques described herein. By way of example, the standalone media player 68 may be an AppleTV.RTM. device by Apple, Inc. However, the standalone media player 68 may also represent a media player or video game console by another manufacturer.
FIGS. 45A-C represent screens that may be displayed on the handheld device 40 after the operation 584 of FIG. 44. Turning first to FIG. 45A, a screen 586 may be displayed on the handheld device 40, representing a prompt to control any devices to which the game controller 84 pertains. For example, a button 588, labeled “Control Video Game System,” may allow a user to control a video game system to which the video game controller 84 pertains. Alternatively, the video game controller 84 may also be used to control the standalone media player 68. Thus, a button 590, labeled “Control Apple TV” may allow a user to control the standalone media player 68 using the media management controls described above
Source: USPTO