Recently Apple released its new Siri remote with the all-new Apple TV 4K. The new Siri remote comes with improved design and enhanced functionalities. Unfortunately Siri remote loses the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors. Both of them are much needed to use the remote as a motion controller for some Apple TV games.
This news was initially reported by Digital Trends, that the Siri remote loses the accelerometer and gyroscope. This will affect the functionality of some games downloaded from the App Store on Apple tvOS. So the new Siri remote won’t be compatible with some Apple TV games that are supported by the old Siri remote. If you want to play those games you need to use the original Siri remote or else you need an Apple certified gaming controller.
Whenever you try to open a game that is not compatible with the new Siri remote, it will display the following message on your Apple TV. In order to play this game on your Apple TV, you need to use the Apple TV old remote or a compatible Playstation, Xbox, or MFI controller. This was reported by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser. Who observed this from the Apple tvOS 14.5 code.
In addition to this, we can also confirm that the new Siri remote loses the accelerometer and gyroscope as they were missing from the tech specs of the new Siri remote. Whereas the older Siri remote lists this Accelerometer and three-axis gyro in its tech specs list.
Here are the details of the new Siri remote losing accelerometer and gyroscope
It is not clear what are Apple’s intentions behind removing the accelerometer and gyroscope from the Siri remote. It can be both a plus point for the company at the same time a bad move from the company. As Siri remote loses the accelerometer and gyroscope, it means the user needs to own a gaming controller necessarily. To play certain games that have a gaming controller not everyone is willing to do that.
Last week Apple launched its biggest update for Apple Arcade. More than 30 new titles were added to the subscription service. Along with the much-anticipated games like Fantasian and many more. With these new updates, Apple Arcade has become something close to Netflix for mobile games.
In addition to this, the Arcade version has been improved greatly. Because they don’t have in-app purchases or monetizations. Also, Apple introduced two new categories. One dedicated to older App store hits and the other one for classic games like chess or solitaire and more.
All these updates and improvements are in line with Apple’s intention of focusing on gaming. On the contrary, making Siri remote loos Accelerometer and gyroscope makes it odd for users to take full advantage of this Apple Arcade update. And none knows how many games will be compatible with the new remote. But if you decide to take full advantage, then you need to add other controllers like PS4, PS5, and Xbox controllers. This will force the developers to add console controller support to their games to let the user have a smooth experience while playing the game.
Assumptions behind Siri remote losing accelerometer sensor
Apple’s new Siri remote loses accelerometer and gyroscope, addressing this many assumptions that came up from different industry experts. These assumptions are based on reports and rumors. So we don’t know how accurate these assumptions are. And whether these are actually things that Apple considered while removing these accelerometers and gyroscope from Siri Remote.
Some of these assumptions are, Since Apple tvOS supports Xbox and Playstation controllers, it seems that Apple is trying to encourage users to play games on Apple TV using joystick more than Siri remote. Luckily the first generation Siri remote still functions with the new Apple TV. So users who prefer to use the old remote can do that. But Apple will no longer officially sells this old version Siri remotes
In addition to this, some previous rumors confirmed that Apple may also have plans for working on its own game controller. So this can be also one of the reasons why Apple has removed the accelerometer and gyroscope from the new Siri remote. And made it a less preferable option for gamers.
Other details
However, there are very few people that are actually playing Apple TV games using the Siri remote. Among them, few people will be playing the games that actually need those two sensors accelerometer and gyroscope. Apple may also have thought the same thing and decided to remove these sensors from the new Siri remote.
Apart from this, Apple will get the data that shows how many people actually used the first generation Siri remote as a motion controller. And the figure in real-time is probably very small so they decided to kill these sensors and save a few manufacturing costs.
Conclusion
Apple made it clear that the new Siri remote loses accelerometer and gyroscope sensors. Which will affect some games in the Apple Store that function based on the motion controller. If a user wants to play those games, they can use the first generation Siri remote or they can add other gaming controllers.
