Trends in Accessories
One of the major trends is making everything wireless. Most systems have cables plugged in the front and back. While there are not many cables plugged into the system, if the system is close to the television system and audio system, then the cables might be quite extensive and very haphazardly arranged. By making most of the accessories wireless the goal is to cut down on the clutter. One of the problems with wireless accessories is power. There is currently no wireless power source for the accessory. So in most cases batteries of some fashion are required. A problem with this can be the power requirements of the regular function of the accessory as well as the components used to maintain the wireless connection. Often the power draw on these batteries can be too much for it to be cost effective to power these devices without rechargeable batteries. A solution to this is a rechargeable controller station, such as this one from Power A.
Another trend developing is that of a controller unique to a specific game. An example of such being the recent guitar controller for Red Octane's Guitar Hero game. These controllers are unusual because they con only be used for one game. The default game controllers are usable for many types of games, so a controller that is only usable for one seems to be counter intuitive. However, with games as popular as Guitar Hero sometimes the controller can even inspire third party replicas.
One problem partly enhanced by the uptake of wireless technology is that the user is still forced to stand up and leave their seat in order to control certain aspects of the game system. In order to alleviate that issue many recent consoles include features that allow powering on, off, and resetting the machine without moving.
Read more about this topic: Video Game Accessory
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