Skip to main content

This phone case hides a removable game controller

There are some serious games to be found for smartphones these days. Sadly, most touch controls are about as precise as a drunken moose. If you’re hardcore into gaming on your phone, there are a lot of controller peripherals out there. I’m big into it and still resist the purchase because lugging an extra controller around goes against the whole spirit of convenience in mobile gaming.

Matt Seslar, creator of the GameBeat, has solved this problem by integrating a fully-functioning controller into a case. My basic, silicone case has saved me many an Asurion payment; a case is always a good idea.

Recommended Videos

The GameBeat case looks like a regular folding or wallet case with an external snap, which is what makes it appealing. On the inside, opposite the phone is a square controller about the size of the average phone’s screen. The pad itself looks like something Nyko would make: plain but functional. The buttons are laid out like a standard controller, with two “joysticks,” a D-pad, the letter button diamond, menu, play/pause and ok/camera buttons. The controller material is soft plastic, so it won’t scratch your phone when closed.

The controller links to your phone via Bluetooth, and charges via micro USB. The battery will survive about six hours of continuous play, which is longer than most phones. The GameBeat works with Android 4.0 and newer operating systems, including tablets. Apple compatibility is on the to-do list.

The game controller attaches to the case with suction pads, in case you decide you just want to use the case, and to make it easier to charge the controller. The adhesive phone attachment doesn’t leave reside on the phone and doesn’t lose its grip. It too has a thin friction hinge that allows the phone to rotate in the case for ease of use when you’re not gaming. When you are playing, the case hinges are also friction hinges that hold at the phone any angle (Seslar compared them those on the Lenovo’s Yoga ultrabooks).

The case comes in four colors; black, white, blue, and pink, as well as four sizes from four and a half to six inches. The team plans on manufacturing special cases to accommodate phones where the volume buttons are on the back.

They’re asking for $100,000 on Indiegogo, with the super early bird perks of a GameBeat controller and case going for $45, $25 off the retail price. Funders will get a link where they can choose the color and size of their case if the goal is reached by the close of the campaign on October 17.

The sad fact is the donations haven’t exactly been pouring in. Perhaps the asking price is a mite high for the casual gamer, and not having Apple support cuts the audience down. In any case, let’s hope Seslar and his team meet their goal on this fixed funding campaign, because the GameBeat is a stellar concept.

Aliya Barnwell
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Aliya Tyus-Barnwell is a writer, cyclist and gamer with an interest in technology. Also a fantasy fan, she's had fiction…
iPhones and iPads are about to get their first retro game streaming service
A man plays a Razer Kishi V2 on his couch.

Playing retro games on iPhone and iPad is about to get even easier. As reported by Cult of Mac, Antstream Arcade, a subscription service that gives you access to over 1,300 licensed games, is making its way to iOS and iPadOS on June 27.

Antstream, which had already been available on Xbox and Windows, as well as via browser and Amazon, features licensed games from around 20 retro consoles like the Amiga, the Atari 2600, the PlayStation 1, and the SNES. So you can play games like Missile Command, Asteroids, Centipede, Day of the Tentacle, a few older Star Wars games, and many others. There are also challenges and tournaments that allow you to play games against other Antstream users.

Read more
An unexpected phone brand is about to make its gaming laptop debut
Redmagic showing two laptops.

When you think of RedMagic, you usually think of gaming smartphones like the RedMagic 8 Pro. But this time, as spotted in Geekbench, RedMagic is debuting in the gaming laptop arena. The RedMagic GN001J gaming laptop is confirmed to launch in June, but no specific date is available.

We do know, however, that this gaming laptop will pack an Intel Core i9-13950HX mobile processor, part of the last-gen Raptor Lake series, which would provide you with 24 cores and 32 threads at your disposal. This is an older chip, unfortunately, which hints that the device may land on the cheaper end of the spectrum.

Read more
Sony shows off a futuristic PlayStation controller, but don’t get too excited
A concept controller from Sony. IT shows two joysticks on either side of a ring.

In its annual corporate strategy meeting, Sony debuted a video that featured a blink-and-you'll-miss-it concept for a redesigned game controller.

The presentation, which you can watch below, was dedicated to talking about Sony's future "creative entertainment vision," and included a lot of talk about the metaverse, mixed reality, and what it perceives as the future of game development. During a segment that showed off many futuristic-looking devices, you can see a circular controller working with a projected screen.

Read more