Apple's Joswiak says iOS gaming catching up to modern consoles
Gaming on iPhone and iPad is reaching a threshold where it's on par with consoles, which have typically outpaced mobile devices, Apple's VP of product marketing claimed in a recent interview.
"They're bringing the current generation of console games to iOS," Greg Joswiak said in a TechCrunch interview. The executive was specifically referring to "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds,", which not only have console-like gameplay but in the former's case allows cross-platform play with console and PC gamers.
Most phone and tablet games are still "casual" titles, limited not just by processing power but by storage space and their interfaces. Even when a game is available for both mobile and the living room, developers will often scale back the mobile version, and/or prevent cross-platform play because of the inherent advantage in having a gamepad or mouse/keyboard combo.
The rapid iteration of iPhone and iPad hardware has helped, Joswiak said.
"Every year we are able to amp up the tech that we bring to developers," he noted. "Before the industry knew it, we were blowing people away. The full gameplay of these titles has woken a lot of people up."
Consoles typically iterate every four years or longer, which means that devices like PCs and the iPhone can catch up to and surpass console hardware, which boosts the baseline for gameplay experiences.
Joswiak noted that iOS is a prime target for game developers over Android because of its consistent platform.
"We bring a very homogenous customer base to developers where 90 percent of [devices] are on the current versions of iOS," he said. This means that developers can exploit Apple technology to its utmost and expect gamers to keep up, whereas Android is more fragmented in terms of software and hardware.
"They're bringing the current generation of console games to iOS," Greg Joswiak said in a TechCrunch interview. The executive was specifically referring to "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds,", which not only have console-like gameplay but in the former's case allows cross-platform play with console and PC gamers.
Most phone and tablet games are still "casual" titles, limited not just by processing power but by storage space and their interfaces. Even when a game is available for both mobile and the living room, developers will often scale back the mobile version, and/or prevent cross-platform play because of the inherent advantage in having a gamepad or mouse/keyboard combo.
The rapid iteration of iPhone and iPad hardware has helped, Joswiak said.
"Every year we are able to amp up the tech that we bring to developers," he noted. "Before the industry knew it, we were blowing people away. The full gameplay of these titles has woken a lot of people up."
Consoles typically iterate every four years or longer, which means that devices like PCs and the iPhone can catch up to and surpass console hardware, which boosts the baseline for gameplay experiences.
Joswiak noted that iOS is a prime target for game developers over Android because of its consistent platform.
"We bring a very homogenous customer base to developers where 90 percent of [devices] are on the current versions of iOS," he said. This means that developers can exploit Apple technology to its utmost and expect gamers to keep up, whereas Android is more fragmented in terms of software and hardware.
Comments
iOS gaming is NOWHERE NEAR modern console gaming.
If you want to get real about gaming, then please do it. Make an official controller for the iPad and make it better than the Nintendo Switch.
Looking at the Fortnite pic in the headline... it looks stupid. The graphics are an ugly mess.
I have a PS4 and and Xbox One and both curb stomp iOS gaming to death.
I tried getting into gaming on my phone, but it's annoying. so then my iPad Pro. Again annoying.
for involved games, you do need a real controller. Not just a touch screen.
I am a huge Apple fan over pretty much any other company, but Joswiac sounds out of touch here and that concerns me.
You know what would be awesome? An Apple TV tier that is as powerful at gaming as an Xbox One X.
That would be amazing.
but no... Apple will continue to halfway dance with gaming and then pat themselves on the back with make-believe statements.
iOS gaming is nothing more than casual fodder. The real games that have been ported can look decent, but they are annoying to actually play.
I was impressed that Injustice for example looked about as good as a good Wii U game, but then I played it... No bueno.
dumbed down control schemes or putting a controller on the screen is just pure lame.
Im waiting fir the iPad rev myself. That should be another big step forward.
Well said. I’ll add that Apple’s general purpose hardware has the advantage of bringing in a lot more dollars (or yen in the case of some gaming competitors) and so can advance faster. Already a significant force in the casual gamer market, its only a matter of time before mobile gaming provides a good enough experience to start to impact the market for dedicated consoles. The fact these formerly console-only games are being migrated to mobile devices is evidence of the future direction; game developers who move to mobile will begin to apply more and more development resources to that platform - because it’s a huge potential market - and that both takes resources away from the effort to advance the console-specific editions and begins to advance what today are only initial ports of those console-specific editions. Wait until they decide mobile is sufficiently important to bring new features there first, and perhaps branch source code to optimize for mobile. Who knows how optimized these initial ports are?
Phone/tablet games are largely hindered by the lack of a dedicated controller, and this lack of dedicated controller means the games can only have so much depth, and games which try to have depth while using a small touchscreen as a controller are usually awkward to play.
Its curious though. Another commenter noticed what I’ve also noticed about apples stated intentions in regards to original content truly none of it assured success to do what? Sell us Apple TVs? Services? Both? Yet gaming which is at least DOUBLE in size to the entirety of all movies and tv is not worth meaningful exploration beyond out of date gpus in the most expensive versions of thier hardware
after years of gaming growth.
I believe they’ve got a substsntial bias regarding the new businesses thier pursuing and they’re gonna Fuck up in media far quicker than gaming
also thier morality isn’t playing well in Hollywood people like dick and swearing Apple will go to the cleaners changing no ones minds
also neither of these console games is representive if this gen offerings
when gta online opens on my iPad then we can have this conversation
That said, I have been playing the full version of Civilization VI on my iPad Air 2, and it does not need a controller. It's pretty great for a full "desktop" port, even if the graphics aren't quite on par with a high end PC.
Meanwhile, I barely play any "flat" games on my PS4 since I got the PSVR. Just played DOOM VFR for the first time with full locomotion settings and the Aim rifle controller and am kind of amazed with it for being a first gen platform. What a time to be alive.
As for you people bitching about the controllers, what the hell is wrong with buying nice bluetooth controller like the Nimbus? I use it to game on my Apple TV all the time, and it works great. Why does Apple need to make one themselves? So that all the "hardcore" gamerz can shit on them non-stop because the D-Pad or the analog sticks aren't to their liking? There's tons of MFI options out there that work just fine. Apple has done a great job with their APIs and with relentlessly pushing the capabilities of their GPUs, in order to create a strong foundation and platform for games. They've done more for mobile gaming than anyone else, and they're not obligated to develop their own console with sounds like it would be a massive headache for little payoff.