iPad Steam deck proves Apple missed an opportunity

[ProbablyDylan]

There isn't really much to prove, Apple has always voluntarily skipped out on gaming. They don't understand the culture at all and it's probably for the best that they don't try to involve themselves.

I think this is the best perspective on this post. Apple simply does not understand the market. They're business people and creatives. Pencil pushers, spreadsheet fillers, drawers and musicians. Not gamers.

 

[NT1440]

Software developers don’t need Steam to put games on the iPad, the app store is good enough. The problem is apple has done basically nothing to entice game developers to the platform as well as that people are generally unwilling to spend console amounts of money for games in the App Store.

I think the game porting toolkit is HUGE and I think it’s great that end users can use it on the Mac, it’s a shame that you can’t do the same (as an end user) on the iPad.

A big focus in the gaming part of the State of The Union was emphasizing that the tools Apple are giving to devs make it easier to port to the Mac, and then/therefore even more seamless to bring it to the iPad and iOS.

 

[oneMadRssn]

The magic of the Steam Deck is Proton, which allows you to play the vast majority of Windows games pretty seamlessly without Windows. Without Proton, Valve's investment in Proton, and the deep integration of Proton in SteamOS, the Deck would be just another handheld PC. There were dozens of them that were completely forgettable before the Deck, and there will be dozens of after. Proton is what makes it special.

 

[BootLoxes]

The magic of the Steam Deck is Proton, which allows you to play the vast majority of Windows games pretty seamlessly without Windows. Without Proton, Valve's investment in Proton, and the deep integration of Proton in SteamOS, the Deck would be just another handheld PC. There were dozens of them that were completely forgettable before the Deck, and there will be dozens of after. Proton is what makes it special.

Not just proton. The OS as a whole. It was tailor made for the device and is lightweight. You get good battery, decent performance, out of the box ways to adjust power consumption, and like you said, proton.

Trying windows handhelds, you get a tiny ui that was not made with handhelds in mind.

also those trackpads are amazing for shooters. I prefer them over a thumbstick

Edit: forgot the mention that pre-shader cache that loads up to help get rid of stutters. Thats nice too

 

[dmr727]

Proton has made me question whether I actually need Windows at all on my desktop. It's pretty impressive how well everything runs, even with an Nvidia GPU.

 

[jlc1978]

You’re confused. I said the steam deck exists because Apple didn’t make the iPad able to use existing ecosystems like steam.

The problem is revenue splits. Steam takes 30%, Apple takes 30% - developer gets 40%. Not very attractive.

By Apple not working with Valve, not allowing Mac games on iPad OS

How many developers would make games iOS friendly rather than a keyboard/mouse model?

and not banning freemium to encourage quality triple A games,

Freemium sells, so it's all about the money.

a system like steam deck (& windows gaming handhelds) were born filling the niche that Apple clearly missed the mark on.

Maybe Apple doesn't see a lot of value in that niche for the iPad?

Could steam deck have still been created by valve if iPads were able to play steam games (possibly, but there would have been a lot less incentive if iPads could play steam games)

Money. Valve would not want to give Apple a cut if tehy didn't have to; and being on the iPad would mean giving Apple a cut.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

with all due respect, the "freemium garbage" is more successful than the steam deck i'll put money on it.

 

[Populus]

To be fair, I sometimes think about a Steam Deck or a Nintendo Switch type-of-handheld device, with an M4 SoC, and with that power would be an awesome device.

But no, I don’t see the iPad Pro becoming a console. I think for games, the form factor of the Steam Deck is perfect. With the efficiency of the M4, it would need less (or no) cooling, smaller battery, and the device could be slimmer and lighter.

But unfortunately, all we can do is dream about it, or play Apple Arcade, Resident Evil and Death Stranding.

 

[mukiex]

Traditional gaming on iPad would be great, but

• Apple is basically cancerously adverse to traditional gaming
• They sell more iPads per quarter, at a healthy profit, than the Steam Deck has to date since launch

So yes, it's gonna be 100% gacha nonsense (I actually have Wuthering Waves/Genshin Impact/Neural Cloud/Girls Frontline installed on mine), but it seems to work for them. If you want actual games that you can play with friends and have a one-time price (for the most part, anyway), Nintendo/Valve/Sony/Microsoft will have you covered 100x better than Apple will.

It's probably why I'm not worried about how successful traditional VR will be in front of the Vision Pro. Even if it gets a mass market iteration (a Vision/Vision Air, if you will), Apple will never overtake a traditional gaming platform with their lifestyle ecosystem.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

4X and turn based games are actuall a genre that would be great on the iPad.

I really enjoy playing civ 6 with my apple Pencil lol.

XCOM: Enemy Within is my iPad jam. I feel like a general commanding my forces with my digital war map.

 

[HouseLannister]

Tesla Cybertruck proves Apple missed an opportunity.
Canon EOS R7 proves Apple missed an opportunity.
Synology Diskstation DS224+ proves Apple missed an opportunity.

Every product line is an opportunity. Doesn’t mean Apple should have that many product lines. Let them focus on what they are good at.

 

[rui no onna]

To be fair, I sometimes think about a Steam Deck or a Nintendo Switch type-of-handheld device, with an M4 SoC, and with that power would be an awesome device.

Even the A12 is a leap over the Switch's Tegra X1.

I have a Switch and while it's nice for older games, it's badly in need of an upgrade.

 

[Joe Dohn]

the iPad is clearly more powerful than steam deck and could play games better. However, Apple decided from the get go to allow companies to make freemium garbage and ruin the gaming ecosystem of iPad.

Hence, Steam Deck was created to fill the niche and also windows gaming handhelds. If Apple were to partner with Valve to allow steam on iPad it would be a game changer, but we won’t see that and it will continue to get outclassed by these new gaming handhelds coming out.

I know you mentioned the Steam Deck, but there are far better handheld PCs out there. The ROG Ally and the Aya Neo come to mind, but are not the only ones.

 

[robertosh]

Steam Deck is amazing, the best gadget I bought in the last years. But has physical controls, is open, Apple would not implement it the same way. They prefer to continue getting rich thanks to kids tricked by this rotten app store ecosystem.

 

[Populus]

I know you mentioned the Steam Deck, but there are far better handheld PCs out there. The ROG Ally and the Aya Neo come to mind, but are not the only ones.

I remember a Dave2D video comparing some of those devices, or similar ones… But everyone I know that has a Deck is delighted by it.

I’m not saying there cannot be better devices than the Deck, but most people I know have Valve’s machine.

I guess I’ll take a look at those machines, just out of curiosity.

 

[rui no onna]

I know you mentioned the Steam Deck, but there are far better handheld PCs out there. The ROG Ally and the Aya Neo come to mind, but are not the only ones.

The ROG Ally has better hardware (bar the problematic microSD slot). However, the experience on the Steam Deck with its purpose-built SteamOS and highly optimized Van Gogh APU is just more fluid/console-like than Windows + Z1 Extreme.

Granted, I guess if you're only playing Steam games, setting the Ally to have Steam startup with Windows on Big Picture Mode would probably do the trick, too.

I use the Ally when I want to play Xbox GamePass and modded games but otherwise, I gravitate to the Steam Deck. Gotta say though, I'm quite tempted by the Lenovo Legion Go.

 

[NT1440]

Steam Deck is amazing, the best gadget I bought in the last years. But has physical controls, is open, Apple would not implement it the same way. They prefer to continue getting rich thanks to kids tricked by this rotten app store ecosystem.

Sync any of the Bluetooth controllers out there, including Xbox or PlayStation ones, to the iPad. Look at that, a good controller!

 

[macfacts]

Sync any of the Bluetooth controllers out there, including Xbox or PlayStation ones, to the iPad. Look at that, a good controller!

Still limited to ipadOS games.

 

[Abazigal]

I think this is the best perspective on this post. Apple simply does not understand the market. They're business people and creatives. Pencil pushers, spreadsheet fillers, drawers and musicians. Not gamers.

I feel like part of the problem was that the App Store basically pushed everyone towards free apps. How many people do you think today would willingly spend $60 on a AAA title? Do we even know how well the recent spate of resident game releases are doing, sales wise?

 

[Ctrlos]

There is a lot of revisionist history going on here. Apps started out charging less than $3 so the low value was baked in from the beginning. The assumption was that consumers pay $40 for an 8 hour game so an 8 minute gameplay loop necessitates a lower entry point. There were free titles from day one but these were often littered with ads which consumers did not like.

Ngmoco’s iOS FPS ‘Eliminate’ introduced freemium barriers to gameplay, partially to lessen the blow on servers for a small dev. Paying for more lives on a 10-minute title though is the exact same game mechanics the Arcade industry had been using since the 1970’s.

Despite the iPhone, Nintendo sold over a 100m DS consoles, Sony still sold 70m PSPs and the 3DS sold over 75m units.

And despite perceptions to the contrary, the premium market on iOS has been thriving. You can play every major JRPG released between 1986 and 1999, many of which go for $20+. The platform has indie parity with the Switch, with titles like Hyper Light Drifter, Hades and Cassette Beasts littering the market.

Capcom seem to think that porting more Resident Evil titles is a good idea so clearly they made some profit from doing so. The iPhone has been home to a lot of PlayStation titles for a while. Games like Flower, Journey, Unfinished Swan and Death Stranding are nowhere near Android.

Devs of quick-play titles still offer everything up front. Alto’s Odyssey on iOS is a $3 upfront title; on Android it’s F2P with pay-to-unlock on everything therein doled out piecemeal.

As a gaming platform iOS is in rude health. Free cloud save backup, cross-buy and play between TV, iPad and iPhone, support for every major controller going, infinite controller profile rebinds (something my Xbox doesn’t have) and now emulators are on the platform.

Loot boxes, Gacha mechanics and leftover currencies are all scummy casino-style mechanics designed to addict gullible players. But when even the EU hasn’t outright banned them are they as addictive as the media make out? The freemium market created itself and like it or not it makes a lot of money. Hoyoverse, makers of Genshin Impact (actually a decent game!) make more money from two/three titles than Sony or Microsoft.

 

[teh_hunterer]

If Apple were to partner with Valve to allow steam on iPad it would be a game changer

How so? Steam is on Mac already and hardly any of the games work. How would that be a game changer?

 

[shadowboi]

Even the A12 is a leap over the Switch's Tegra X1.

I have a Switch and while it's nice for older games, it's badly in need of an upgrade.

Having this in mind, it is beyond my understanding why something like Hogwarts Legacy cannot run natively on M-series iPads and Macs.

I guess game developers don’t like that Apple’s ecosystem is quite good for protecting user privacy, so that they cannot collect as much data as on other devices

 

[robertosh]

Sync any of the Bluetooth controllers out there, including Xbox or PlayStation ones, to the iPad. Look at that, a good controller!

of course, but the best thing of the deck is simply that, you take it, wherever you are and you can properly game. I also have xbox one controller and deck ones are way better.

 

[macfacts]

Having this in mind, it is beyond my understanding why something like Hogwarts Legacy cannot run natively on M-series iPads and Macs.

I guess game developers don’t like that Apple’s ecosystem is quite good for protecting user privacy, so that they cannot collect as much data as on other devices

On PC the recommended specs are 16 GB ram, how many macs have 16gb ram? Potential sales aren't worth it to spend money to develop for. Your email address and IP address isn't that valuable, stop deluding yourself.

 

[shadowboi]

On PC the recommended specs are 16 GB ram, how many macs have 16gb ram? Potential sales aren't worth it to spend money to develop for. Your email address and IP address isn't that valuable stop deluding yourself.

But it runs on switch somehow, 4 gb ram, ancient Nvidia ARM processor from 2013 I guess. Many new iPads have 16gb now but honestly, RAM is only for faster level loading. They can divide map into zones like on Switch