Somehow Apple has managed to position itself as one of the most innovative and yet stubborn companies in the tech industry. The same company that brought us revolutionary products like the original Macintosh computer and the iPhone also stuck with the one-button mouse for around 20 years.

It would be easy to blame such stubbornness on the obstinate genius of Steve Jobs, but nearly four years after Jobs’ death, Apple is still proving that it can stick to arbitrarily limiting decisions like always.

The latest example of this is the company’s insistence that all games developed for Apple TV must support the device’s no-button touchpad remote. To put it another way, games cannot require the use of a standard joystick-and-buttons controller. You know, like the ones Apple advertises on its website.

So for those of you who wondered if Apple TV might be limited to the same sort of low quality shovelware that makes up the App Store game selection, worry no longer! Those games will also have motion controls now. Yay?

To boldly go where Nintendo has already gone before

Of course, the issue is not whether or not games that use the remote can be good. Nintendo made plenty of good motion-controlled games back when that was still cool and interesting to do, around 10 years ago. Then again, Nintendo also had plenty of games that worked great on other systems but were terrible on the Wii because of the motion controls that were shoehorned in.

The problem with forcing remote support is that it limits developers to a very specific type of control scheme that may not fit with every game type. Imagine trying to play a racing game with a Guitar Hero controller, and you get the idea.

Essentially, Apple’s nonsensical decision means less variety in games for its new system, and while the term “Apple gamer” has been an oxymoron since the ’90s, it is hard to figure out what exactly Apple is hoping to accomplish by laser-focusing its game library on titles than can be played by waving a stick around.

Image courtesy of Apple Inc.