What do you consider an official release?

[retromangia]

I've noticed many third party accessories are now falling under the category of "unofficial release", which I believe to be wrong. Are we only considering first party accessories official now?

Because to me, all the old third party brands such as Nuby, Naki, Interact, Mad Catz etc, these were HUGE, well known third party companies producing these peripherals. I truly believe these should fall under "Official".

To me, an "UNofficial release" would be something like this, a special adapter some guy is selling on the forums, or a piece of homebrew software. Now THOSE are unofficial.

Thanks for hearing me out

- Retromangia

[empovyle]

IMO, these offbrand styles of accessories should be labelled "unofficial" or "official" depending on if they are officially licensed by the hardware company they're producing for. I know Mad Catz and PowerA controllers in particular have some history in being officially licensed. Controllers like the infamous "DoubleShock" should definitely be labelled unofficial. Homemade adapters should be homebrew/unofficial depending on the circumstances, just because they are lacking that official recognition.

[tripredacus]

Official has always meant that the console manufacturer approved or licensed the third party to create the item. It has nothing to do with whether or not the brand was popular or not. And also any item that features a licensed property for theme but is not licensed for the console itself should also get Unofficial Release.

The only instances where there are no "unofficial" accessories is in PC accessories.

[pzeke]

Most products usually have a "seal of approval" that right away indicates they're official, and if not, then they'll surely have a notice stating if they're licensed, or any other variation like sponsored, endorsed, or approved.

That said, there are still few oddballs out there that don't bother including a blurb specifying their products aren't licensed, although it really isn't hard to tell.