Epic's 'Infinity Blade' for iOS more profitable than 'Gears of War'

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  • Reply 21 of 26
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post



    Another issue with the big consoles is game selection - while the popular titles are obviously more immersive, they take ages to develop so you get maybe 10-20 big titles on the main consoles and spread out over a long period of time.


    I reckon there has to be a middle ground somewhere.


    I don't like iOS games that last an hour or less but I like the price. I also don't like console games I have to wait 3 years to play and that cost a lot of money.

    There should be a balance in the middle but it runs the risk of being the worst of both. The episodic style of Half-Life wasn't too bad but you can lose track of the story that way. I'm sure the market will find the best compromise but I fear it will side with casual games for the most part. Some consolation is that the competition is large so hopefully it will drive the quality up.


     


    The critical issue is that the platform for AAA titles is incredibly nonsensical. Take Mass Effect 3 for example. Superb title.


     


    1.


    Try to enjoy it on PC ~ Good luck. First you need a decent laptop, or a 600Watt monster PC rig. Then you need to configure and tweak everything. Then you need to deal with Windows, drivers, endless trouble. Then if you make it through you hope you can play a few hours without crashing or who knows what not. 


     


    2.


    Try to enjoy it on Xbox360 ~ Well, possible, but Mass Effect 3 was so utterly crippled on Xbox360 that I felt sad for the developers. Chopped up animation, developers squeezing the very last drop from the antiquated hardware still running at 720p.


     


    3.


    PS3 ~ I won't even go there. Suffice to say a George Foreman grill to play something that has the graphics quality of the iPad.


     


    All the iPad has to do is hit 2011 DX11 PC Quality ~ Look at Unreal Engine 3, Dirt 3, heck, even Source on PC. If the iPad can do this by early 2015 then that's the key to bringing casual and hardcore gaming together. "Hardcore" gaming can easily be delivered in 2GB "episodes". That is, a Mass Effect 3 today in 2015 could be released as a 3-part series released over the course of 1 year. For example, at the end of each part you could still do missions, do some stuff online, and so on.  


     


    Apple has created a gaming platform that is seen as very much "casual" but as the hardware improves on iOS (OpenGL[ES] at insane resolutions) and Mac (30+fps Uniengine Heaven with ambient occlusion in a laptop as thin as a smartphone)... Casual will meet Hardcore.


     


    CasCore™

  • Reply 22 of 26
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    There's a lot of money to be made in iOS gaming, for those companies that release must have games. We're only going to see more great games coming out for iOS in the future.


     


    And I still think that Nintendo is making a mistake by not releasing their classic titles. They could be raking in the dough right now, or at least the yen. Do you realize how many millions of copies of Mario and their other classic games that they would sell?



     


    Thank goodness I'm not the only one. To see Nintendo and Sony sit on their defunct business models not releasing IP for other platforms is just, tragic. Mario on iOS will easily give Angry Birds a run for their money. Instead we see everything except Grand Theft Mario slavishly used to prop up Nintendo hardware, which let's face it, isn't all that fantastic. Same thing with God Of War and all those crazy a** Japanese titles (some are good). Sony will rue the day they thought they could make money from the PS3 ~hardware~. Cell processor. LOL. Seriously, LOL.


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Zoolook View Post


    DirectX will not be widely available on mobile devices until Windows is. So not sure about that comment.

     



     


    You don't need DirectX, just DirectX10/11 features such as the fancy stuff that makes things look like "a real game". OpenGL and OpenGL ES, IMO, have a very "Open GL" kind of look. The perfect storm will be OpenGL looking "more like DX11", Apple ramping up hardware capabilities, and game developers doing episodic versions of AAA titles. If this happens by 2015, watch out everyone, we got a real live one here.


     


    So I reiterate what I've said previously which is in line with Epic ~ give us DX11-quality, Unreal-Engine-4-ish graphics and animation experience on iOS and you have a force mankind has never known before. 


     


    The only reason I don't play much on iOS is because I need console-quality AAA titles particularly for the plot and voice acting. Graphics of course, because since DX9 visual quality in gaming has been very, very good (pity about Windows). 


     


    If Xbox720 and PS4 actually came out this year, then we would see the next-generation of 3D experiences. But, since that is not going to happen, then by 2015 if you can hit 2012 PC-quality graphics, it will be "good enough" for most people. The game development industry is smart enough. If they can cram something like Assassin's Creed 2 onto one DVD, give you at least 3 huge cities (Florence, Tuscany, Venice) and very good 720p visuals with antiquated almost decade-old hardware, they can push a 2015 iPad to amazing heights.


     


    And this is very, very possible by early 2015. Given sub-10nm processes and huge investment now being pumped into ARM and PowerVR, I think you will see in early 2015 an iPad having at least a Core2Duo-Nvidia9600GT class of gaming power. 


     


    Perhaps contrary to what we think, mobile gaming will save hardcore gaming. PC and console gaming is not going to go away, but once iPad reaches the levels I talk about they will be in serious doo-doo.

  • Reply 23 of 26
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    sr2012 wrote: »
    The critical issue is that the platform for AAA titles is incredibly nonsensical.

    Absolutely, the costs to build a game are just insane now:

    http://www.oxm.co.uk/40860/aaa-games-would-cost-1800-if-they-reflected-man-year-development-time/

    That's why I think Apple should invest in Epic or Square Enix to get a well-supported workflow for game development on iOS. They could have an IDE like in the following video:


    [VIDEO]


    It can even integrate with FCPX and Motion so that you can do all the in-game titles and test in the iOS emulator. I don't think it should be limited to games either. They could use it for post-production for CGI sequences to integrate into movies. Even without raytracing, it would be useful but they could add that too.

    Imagine signing up for a developer license and you get a game engine like you see above with a simple level designer and character movement cycles and maybe even a bunch of sound effects. You add music, voices, scripts, artwork and so on. It would still be a huge task to make a game but it's a big leg up for smaller teams.

    It likely won't help big publishers much unless they already used the same engine though.
    sr2012 wrote: »
    Try to enjoy it on PC ~ Good luck. First you need a decent laptop, or a 600Watt monster PC rig. Then you need to configure and tweak everything. Then you need to deal with Windows, drivers, endless trouble. Then if you make it through you hope you can play a few hours without crashing or who knows what not.

    In many cases that's true but I think ME3 was ok in terms of performance:



    I see a number of games coming out where they reuse older engines and workflows and just focus on the content. Take Splinter Cell Blacklist:


    [VIDEO]


    It looks very similar to Conviction so any machine that was suitable in 2010 will be suitable in 2012 and it opens up the games for entry-level machines. I think we'll start to see more of this sort of thing happening. Improved visuals have diminishing returns and the driver/performance issues.
    sr2012 wrote: »
    All the iPad has to do is hit 2011 DX11 PC Quality ~ Look at Unreal Engine 3, Dirt 3, heck, even Source on PC. If the iPad can do this by early 2015 then that's the key to bringing casual and hardcore gaming together. "Hardcore" gaming can easily be delivered in 2GB "episodes". That is, a Mass Effect 3 today in 2015 could be released as a 3-part series released over the course of 1 year. For example, at the end of each part you could still do missions, do some stuff online, and so on.

    Apple has created a gaming platform that is seen as very much "casual" but as the hardware improves on iOS (OpenGL[ES] at insane resolutions) and Mac (30+fps Uniengine Heaven with ambient occlusion in a laptop as thin as a smartphone)... Casual will meet Hardcore.

    CasCore™

    Even the Rogue mobile GPU in 2013 should bring iOS up to PS3/360 level graphics. While I agree that will bring casual games more towards the 'hardcore' label, I still think they need improvement on more than just the visuals. The increased power will improve AI and environment scale though so we'll see. Mass Effect Infiltrator for example is an example of iOS games closing in on their console counterparts. Videos of ME3 on a fast desktop GPU vs infiltrator on an iOS device:


  • Reply 24 of 26
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ShAdOwXPR View Post



    Hopefully we will start getting 19.99-29.99$ games on iOS that are more complex. 


     


    The tech isn't quite there yet but as it grows so will the games. As for controllers and such, Apple isn't likely to ever make them. They will put support in the SDK perhaps but the hardware will come from 3rd party companies just as it does now. Because ideally Apple wants folks to have the ability to do everything directly on the iPad/iphone without a need for some add on, making the use of a controller or a stylus or whatever an option

  • Reply 25 of 26
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RoboTone View Post


     


    A rather misleading headline..



     


    How is it misleading when a member of Epic Games said that very thing. 

  • Reply 26 of 26
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


     


    I would buy Pokemon for iPad. I would pay $10 for it, easy.



     


    I feel that way about the classic Super Nintendo, Donkey Kong etc. 

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