With iOS the dominant force when it somes to handheld gaming these days, it’s just a short hop, skip and a jump to see the company offer a gaming solution for the TV, potentially through the Apple TV device. And now, thanks to the lovely world of patents, we know that Apple has been thinking about the idea itself.

Apple filed for a patent back in March for a “System and Method for control of electronic devices”, which was published this week. The patent, while largely outlining how iOS devices can be potentially paired with other devices like an Apple remote or an Apple TV using RFID or NFC, also mentions a dedicated game controller.

From the patent, FiG 6 (which looks exactly like a Playstation DualShock controller) “is a schematic of a video game controller for the standalone media player of FIG. 4 or a video game system”.

Patents can hardly be used as a basis of knowing exactly what a company is planning on releases, but this particular patent indicates that Apple is both thinking hard about expanding its gaming footprint – which is obvious when you consider the inclusion of Game Center in OS X Mountain Lion – and NFC is likely to make an appearance in Apple products in the not too distant future.

Via: Gamerevolution