Is Apple working on its own game controller?

Macworld

According to a sharp-eyed MacRumors reader, the first macOS 26.7 release candidate included references to a pair of game controllers. The same release candidate included code numbers for a slew of other in-development Apple products.

The two hardware devices are referenced as T6502 and T1057 and they include most standard game controller features: dual thumbsticks, face buttons, triggers, home and menu buttons, and different haptic features. One notable difference: the T1057 controller includes gryscope and accelerometer support (so games can tell how you tilt or move the controller) while T6502 does not.

While this is an interesting find, I caution readers not to assume that Apple is working on its own game controller. There have been rumors of Apple making its own game controller for over a decade, and nothing has ever come of it. Apple has instead done a lot to provide proper support for third-party game controllers, whether that’s its own MFi program or controllers for home console systems.

For years, you have been able to sync an Xbox or PlayStation controller to your Apple devices, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple TV. That includes the latest controllers for the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

These code numbers probably reference test devices that are used in testing support for core game controller functions, or legacy references to R&D projects for Apple game controllers that may never be built. Apple famously has many products in various stages of development and only a few of them are ever released.

Apple could be building its own game controller, but there would be little reason to. Find My support and automatic switching between devices would be useful, but it’s hard to argue that modern controllers are missing features that require Apple to do its own thing. It makes much more sense for Apple to support the tens of millions of Xbox and PlayStation controllers than to make its own, especially as Apple’s platforms are not very popular for the kinds of games one usually plays with controllers.