The Zeemote on first use seems to be a solution looking for a problem.

This separate joystick controller for playing games on mobile phones appeared an unnecessary peripheral to me – who wants to carry around something extra in their pocket just to play a few games on their phone, when the regular buttons on the handset work just as well?

I gave it to my nine-year-old son to play with and he concurred. There was nothing he could do with the joystick that he couldn’t do using the normal phone buttons. Even flying was just as easy on the phone.

However, I spoke to Beth Marcus, Zeemote’s chief executive, who provided a few reasons to justify the device, which will be demonstrated at next week’s Game Developers Conference.

Firstly, my son’s hands were a lot smaller than those in the Zeemote’s target demographic – 18 to 25 year-olds – where frustrations abound when a wrong key is pressed. Second, it’s a different decoupled sit-back experience compared to putting the phone in your face in Blackberry-prayer mode. Third, there are moves you can make with the Zeemote that can take you to the next level of a game, which are almost impossible on a regular handset keyboard - I’ll have to trust her on that one.

She expects the Zeemote, which features a thumbstick and four assignable buttons, to be available in the first half of the year for less than $50. It could also be bundled with games and/or a phone and calling plan.

The Zeemote could also find other uses as a remote control and a smoother browser of maps and web pages, but the focus is on games for now.

The chief executive created the first force-feedback joystick for PC games, but there are no rumble effects in the Zeemote, which pairs up with the phone as a Bluetooth device.

“That would have been an extra cost,” she said. “And there’s a motor in phones that can already add vibrations to games.”

February 15th, 2008 in Games, Hardware, Mobile | Permalink