ANBERNIC Are Now Making Wireless Controllers Because… Why Not Right? | Retro Dodo
ANBERNIC Are Now Making Wireless Controllers Because… Why Not Right? | Retro Dodo
- ANBERNIC have recently entered the wireless controller market with their new RGP01 controller, following a teaser on their YouTube channel.
- The RGP01 is available in three colourways: white, pink, and black. Its design is inspired by modern Xbox controllers and supports multiple platforms including PC, Steam, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS via Bluetooth 5.3 or 2.4G connections or USB-C.
- The controller features ANBERNIC’s hallmark LED Hall-effect joysticks that can be set to different colours and react to movements. It also comes with a built-in six-axis gyroscope for enhanced gameplay on Nintendo Switch Joy-cons.
- ANBERNIC allows swapping of the ABXY button layout via software, alongside a TURBO rapid-fire button which is user-mappable.
- While ANBERNIC has produced some of the best retro handhelds this year, entering an already saturated market with 8BITDO and GuliKit presents challenges. To gain market share, they would have to outprice competitors aggressively.
How do you think ANBERNIC will fare in this highly competitive market, and will their unique features be enough to stand out?
I don't think it's a bad idea. I've used a lot of controllers in the past that have felt worse than the controls on Anbernics handhelds. If they are willing to switch things up and breakaway from the typical from the typical Switch Pro controller look a lot of third party companies use I think it could be cool
hall effect joysticks that light up are interesting at least, i'll be curious to see reviews. There are a lot of third party controller companies already, but since it's sort of a secondary business instead of the main one maybe it'll work out nicely.
However, I do believe they’re entering a very oversaturated market, with the likes of 8BITDO and GuliKit creating high-quality, affordable controllers in the same niche. ANBERNIC would have to aggressively outprice them to get any kind of attention, but only time will tell.
Not really. 8BitDo really blew it with the Ultimate. They confusingly have two different "versions" of it, and neither have the full range of device compatibility that previous 8BitDo controllers had. The most egregious exclusion from the Ultimate was Xinput over Bluetooth. I still have no idea why they decided to drop that.
Its design takes inspiration from a modern-day Xbox controller and is fully compatible with PC, Steam, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS using Bluetooth 5.3 and 2.4g connection. It can also be connected using a USB-C wire too.
If this new controller has Xinput over Bluetooth, all of the compatibility from above, and a strong battery life, it might be a day 1 buy. It will have hall effect sticks, so this sounds like everything I wanted the 8BD Ultimate to be. I hope there aren't any showstoppers once reviews start coming out.
Is it bad that my first instinct was to make sure this wasn't the onion?
Why though? It's not innovative and looks pretty much like a cookie cutter copy of 8bitdo's design.
I hope that I'm wrong, but this seems like it's just going to contribute to (even more) oversaturation.