The ever-increasing power of smartphones has led directly to the rise of "hardcore" mobile gaming. While some games are made specifically with touch in mind, other genres such as first-person shooters and action games need the precision that comes with a traditional game controller.

Companies such as MadCatz (RIP) and SteelSeries have for years made competent controllers for our mobile devices. Now, it's Motorola's turn.

The company has released pricing and availability on its own Moto Mod gamepad and some of you may not like it.

Releasing on August 25, the Moto Mod is going to cost around $80 and is exclusive to Verizon. It's interesting that Motorola would choose to sell the Mod only through Verizon despite the fact that the Moto Z line is technically available on all four major U.S. carriers (if you buy it through their website, at least). Furthermore, why price the Mod so high when the SteelSeries Stratus and MadCatz C.T.R.L controllers both cost less?

To be fair, the gamepad itself doesn't look too bad in my eyes. It has twin thumb sticks, a D-pad, four physical action buttons and shoulder buttons. Since it connects directly to the phone instead of Bluetooth, that should negate any perceptible input lag. The 1,035mAh battery also extends the phone's battery life an additional eight hours.

Motorola's take on modularity continues to be one of the better implementations but the relatively high price of most of the Mods makes jumping into the Moto ecosystem expensive. Still, for those Motorola gamers out there, this gamepad is at least a welcome addition to the Moto Mod family.