Playtiles game controllers stick to your phone screen, come bundled with a season of indie games for $14 and up

There's no shortage of game controllers designed to turn smartphones into handheld game consoles with physical buttons. But most are designed to clip onto the sides of your phone, adding bulk.

Playtiles has a different solution. The company is taking pre-orders for a mobile controller that sticks to the front of your screen to give you a D-Pad and two physical buttons. Prices start at 12€ (about $14) during pre-orders, and each gamepad comes bundled with access to a season of indie games designed specifically for use with the little gamepad.

So how does this thing actually work? In a nutshell, each Playtile is a little device that measures 68 x 40 x 2mm and features a sticky back that allows it to stay attached to your phone without any glue. If it starts to become difficult to stick, you can just rinse it off with water.

The action buttons ad 4-way D-pad are actually just capacitive touch buttons, which means that you get something tactile to press your thumbs against, but your phone will treat the buttons like fingertips.

When your Playtile arrives, you can scan the included QR code to launch the web-based Playtiles OS, which includes a simple user interface and access to a suite of games that can run offline (after they've been loaded).

Since the "OS" is browser based and the buttons don't require any software, Playtiles should be compatible with most iPhones or Android phones. The only requirement is that you have a screen that's at least 68mm wide.

There are a few more things to keep in mind before pulling out your wallet though. One is that Playtiles are still a work in progress – they won't ship until the fourth quarter of 2025 at the earliest, and some features may change before then.

Another is that while you can theoretically use Playtiles controllers with apps and games other than those offered through Playtiles OS, the company is really trying to build a mobile gaming platform and not just a controller. So the idea is that this is a cheaper alternative to a Playdate since the hardware is mostly just your phone.

But the $14 starting price only gets you a "sneak peek" at the first season of games. While Playtiles plans to offer 12 games per season, the cheapest option only gets you four of those games. Prices for a full 12 week season start at 23.5€ ($28).

You can sideload other games developed using GB Studio if you wan more compatible games though.

via /r/SBCGaming

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal * If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it. Join 9,508 other subscribers