When Minecraft PE was first released as an exclusive for the Sony Xperia Play 2011, it had full support for the device's included controller. Unfortunately, when it was released for all Android devices (and other platforms), controller support didn't carry over. To this date, the only two devices with controller support on Minecraft PE are the Play and Amazon Fire TV.
But starting with the (probably) next Minecraft PE update, it looks like Mojang might finally be adding controller support to Minecraft PE. Take a look:
https://twitter.com/_tomcc/status/599192883661377536
Controller support would be a huge addition to Minecraft PE, and further expand the number of devices it could be played on. There aren't many people that would rather play with a physical controller on their phones, there are dozens of Android devices with no touchscreen that Minecraft PE could finally run on. Examples include Android TV devices, the Ouya, Android-powered Smart TVs, and even PCs running/emulating Android that don't have a touchscreen.
The question of exactly which controllers it will support remains unknown. Most controllers for Android use a generic HUD interface, which just about every Android game that supports controllers can use. However, there are some other types of controllers (MOGA is a good example) that have their own controller API that apps have to separately implement, so they could potentially be unsupported by Mojang. Controllers on iOS are much simpler - there's on API that all controllers use (but the use of controllers on iOS is still low).
The tweet doesn't mention what version will get the UI overhaul and controller support, but it's a good bet it will be MCPE 0.12. I can't wait to brush the dust off my MOGA controller...
But starting with the (probably) next Minecraft PE update, it looks like Mojang might finally be adding controller support to Minecraft PE. Take a look:
https://twitter.com/_tomcc/status/599192883661377536
Controller support would be a huge addition to Minecraft PE, and further expand the number of devices it could be played on. There aren't many people that would rather play with a physical controller on their phones, there are dozens of Android devices with no touchscreen that Minecraft PE could finally run on. Examples include Android TV devices, the Ouya, Android-powered Smart TVs, and even PCs running/emulating Android that don't have a touchscreen.
The question of exactly which controllers it will support remains unknown. Most controllers for Android use a generic HUD interface, which just about every Android game that supports controllers can use. However, there are some other types of controllers (MOGA is a good example) that have their own controller API that apps have to separately implement, so they could potentially be unsupported by Mojang. Controllers on iOS are much simpler - there's on API that all controllers use (but the use of controllers on iOS is still low).
The tweet doesn't mention what version will get the UI overhaul and controller support, but it's a good bet it will be MCPE 0.12. I can't wait to brush the dust off my MOGA controller...