Backbone Updates Software to Premium Service, Backbone+

Remember when we reviewed the Backbone? If you like to play games on your iPhone, it’s one of the best controllers you can get. A big part of that is the software that comes with the controller itself, which integrates with various iOS functions and more. Today, that software got an upgrade, and has been relaunched as Backbone+

Related: Backbone Review | iOS Gaming’s Silver Bullet

Now, the Backbone app is more focused on being the gaming center for your iPhone. But it also lets you use the Backbone for other devices, with a new setting that enables a USB connection to your PC, iPad, or more. The capture quality has also been improved, allowing for 1080p 60 FPS recording, and HEVC encoding.

The gaming center aspect is the most immediately visible part of the update, though. Now, using metadata Twitch uses for its own organization, Backbone+ displays games divided into various categories, allowing you to browse or search by various criteria to launch whatever game you want to play within the Backbone app. Sometimes it’s a simple redirection to the app you need (such is the case with PlayStation remote play), but it’s still a shortcut.

Now, Backbone+ is now a premium service. But while that may be jarring for earlier adopters, anyone who has bought a Backbone and used it (and the software) before today is considered a Founder, and has access to Backbone+ for life. And if you’re a new customer, the $100 price tag now includes a year of Backbone+ access. After that, it’s fifty bucks billed annually.

I’m only hitting the big points here, but as you can see in this massive blog post there’s a lot of new tinkering opportunities with Backbone+ – I’m still poking around myself but already can feel it’s a much better and useful experience. If you have a Backbone or are considering getting one, let us know what you think of this news over in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.