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It’s cool to see ARM-based chips running these games, but I’m opposed to Apple’s proprietary Metal API being utilized, requiring developers support another API to reach this new audience.
I imagine this move will translate to their Vision Pro headset, which I think needs a VR game library to prove successful.
It’s insane to me that they’ve dropped every other API… They should really support Vulkan.
Fair play to those who enjoy gaming on their phone, but it’s not for me even if they have AAA titles. I can’t deal with my fingers covering half the screen, getting alerts for apps and messages while trying to game, and burning half my battery for the day on my commute. Not to mention for the price a top whack iPhone goes for, you could get a ROG Ally or Steam Deck which are actually designed to play games on.
I really want to like playing games on my phone, but I absolutely hate it for similar reasons. I guess some people might pair Bluetooth controllers or something which might make it better for these kinds of games, but still… either way I have yet to find a touchscreen based game that I actually want to play. The closest I’ve gotten is chess and go.
There was a brief period when I first got my iPhone 3GS where I got kind of into them, but it was a novelty I think of going from naff java based games on Symbian to proper games. After a year or so, that wore off and I haven’t gone back since.
Apple is going to make a game console and this is a test on mobile to gage publisher interest.
Likely Apple TV successor.
I’d say it’s probably to integrate games across mobile and Vision Pro in the future. They’re already partnered with unity to bring games to it.
Appletv is already their games console.
Certainly not a hardcore console. Casual Apple Arcade games (current Apple TV majority demographic) and AAA 1 for 1 ports focusing on graphical fidelity are two different markets. The fact that the iOS version of Assassins Creed Mirage is releasing the same day as the console and PC versions makes me think that Apple is looking to potentially throw their hat into the console market (again) and possibly be a competitor for the Big 3…and mobile is the perfect basic platform to check consumer interest with AAA games on iOS before going to the TV / living room.
Although in order for them to penetrate this cemented market it’s inevitable that Apple is going to try (likely timed) exclusive deals with publishers. They already do this for Arcade.
I feel like we’re seeing the culmination of Apple’s efforts to get devs to use Metal.
When they released their toolkit in June, I thought it would be to get gaming just on Macs. I think now it’s a lot more likely that they wanted devs to convert games to work on their phones and tablets.
A lot more people have iPhones than have Macs or even Xboxs or gaming PCs or PS5s. If you can get people buying console games on Apple Silicon and you have devs converting their games to work with this massive, already-extant market, then you’ve just made a ton of money.
Think about how attractive that is if you’re someone who only wants to play a resident evil here or a warframe there. With crossplay you can play with your friends no matter where they are and now you can play it on your phone that probably makes the game look better than your PS4. Definitely better than your switch. Well maybe you don’t think about getting the new PlayStation because you only buy a couple games each generation, good thing your Apple TV can run those games too so you might as well just save the money and play on that with your PS4 or Xbox controller.
Very cool. I’m all for having my games everywhere and getting to play wherever I choose. And this is all very shrewd decisions on Apple’s part