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Will console level games come to iPad Pro?
- Thread starter whitedragon101
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As I said, not designed for console level hammering. Integrated graphics processors can never provide as much power as a standalone high powered graphics cards that are used within either consoles or PCs.
The game you’re talking about might look nice on an iPad because the company has invested time in optimising it but as I said, one game doesn’t change the trend of the user expectations. This has been researched since last few years. Average people just don’t spend enough on mobile apps for a hardcore game to be profitable for a studio given the upfront expenses for developing such games.
Publishers digging through old game catalog and warming it up for a release in iOS for relatively low cost is not the same as investing in bringing new games to iOS. It is very low risk but wouldn’t have happened if the investment hadn’t already been done for the original console games
Also, while mobile has made amazing strides over the last ten years, they are still limited thermally and by power consumption (have to run for hours on a battery). Within that envelope they’ve done amazingly well but will hit a plateau soon enough, with improvement effectively following process mode shrinks which allow for more performance for the same power consumption.
Consoles will always be one step ahead simply because they can be engineered to use 150w or higher, while an iOS device is probably more like 5w. There will be some flexing as a console spec is usually frozen for 5 years so portable devices can benefit from improvements during that time, but then consoles will jump ahead again at the next generational transition. PS3/360 level games is impressive but we will only be ‘one generation behind’ for a short time and then PS5/XB2 will be out
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It is a specific reply to the usually ignorant poster I was responding to. I am using one example here and not claiming that all industries behave like GRID. I am aware that the gaming markets for consoles and mobile devices differ greatly.
And if my old console hardware breaks I can no longer avail of new replacements. Everything dies one day. Console games are in theory lasting forever only if the hardware components never die.
Yes in iOS it will come down to the developer ‘s responsibility to develop a game so that it works for a long time .
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How did you get to the assumption that it takes $50 million to make a fun game. Triple A titles are expensive, triple A titles are not necessarily fun. This is why we do not make them. That is a huge gamble. We can make casual games in six months and make quite a bit on advertisements or grants.
To be perfectly candid, we would love to make $50million dollar games, they are awesome. It is not the studios that have made this decision, it is the consumers. We make what the consumers purchase. That is our metric.
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Price of evolution. My favorite green screen games of the past no longer work either: Zork. ( we do have emulators, give enough time I bet we get your favorite 32bit iOS games on an emulator as well, so all is not lost ).
Wrote my first game in 1981, sadly I can no longer play that either. Don't even have a YouTube video of it. So sad.
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As many have said, I'm not sure people are willing to pay 20, 30 dollars for an iOS game. I have no idea about Mac sales, but they are really expensive. For example, I bought Farming Simulator (every version since 2012) on iOS, but I haven't purchased the 30 dollar (IIRC) version of OS X. For two reasons: My Mac is 128GB (mistake I know), and games take like 20GB each. On the contrary, every iOS version was 5 dollars, and it takes 300MB of storage. So: 5 dollars and 300MB or 30 dollars and 20GB on a 128GB Mac?.
Also, I can use multiplayer with a friend. Meanwhile, that friend does not have a Mac. So, the decision is not too difficult: I can play with others, and for the price of one I can buy six (I intend to buy every version; have 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018.)
Also, I can use multiplayer with a friend. Meanwhile, that friend does not have a Mac. So, the decision is not too difficult: I can play with others, and for the price of one I can buy six (I intend to buy every version; have 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018.)
The Stanley Parable is proof that games can be cheap run on very modest hardware specs and still be awesome
Ahh therein lies the genius of the Stanley Parable, a game that questions what a game is and why we enjoy them.
You can always replace older consoles. Better yet, you can emulate them and run them on any modern computer, make a little arcade from a Raspberry Pi, etc...
The options are endless. I still play several great PC games from the 90's and early 00's.
There are many reasons why I can't even pretend to be interested in or willing to put any money towards iOS games, though I can why some people go for the inexpensive ones that are well suited enough for the interface (like puzzle games).
I'm really not sure what you are getting at mate. But some knowledge to add to your comment:
The Stanley Parable was built on a Triple A title that cost over $40 million to develop in 2004 ( half-life 2 engine ). Today's money it is something like $52 million.
I have been writing software since 1981. I have built games for zero dollars. We are working on one right now with a club so that others can learn how to write software. Total cost: zero dollars.
I know we can build software for very little money, but I'm not currently working on TripleA titles, just casual games. Have you looked at the credits for triple A titles? Those people have to feed their families and exotic pets.
I say, 'Here, here get off the forums and start writing some code!' Maybe you will develop the next Triple A title.
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Have you tried Darkest Dungeon? It is amazing, well, I think it is amazing.
The makers of the Stanley Parable didn’t have to pay a penny though. In the same way that the cost to make an Unreal or Unity engine game does not cost the total amount that Epic or Unity spent to develop the engine.
My point was the Stanley parable lacked huge production costs of animation, motion capture, complex interactions, custom 3D engine etc. They made a low cost game with a good idea and it paid off.
I cannot buy new hardware for any of my consoles from Sega. For example.
I have no intention of fiddling around with emulators or such. These are nothing but workarounds. I would never call them “even better” and anything I need a computer to emulate kills the console experience. At least to me. Closed systems and their users move on, at least the majority does, every 5-10 years.
Sure you can if you buy second-hand, because they haven't changed in any way that renders them inoperable.
You may not like them, but it's just one other way the classics have been made timeless. You can get USB versions of many old console controllers, even.
Even though you move on to new consoles, you can still use the ones you have as long as you like. That's the point I'm making. With iOS, once support drops it's pretty much gone forever.
Heck, I know people who still have N64 parties with Super Smash Bros, Goldeneye, and the like.
I think console-quality mobile gaming on iOS will continue to be a bumpy road for a long time. I've always been impressed at what current-gen iPad hardware is capable of from a gaming perspective, but the App Store is filled mostly with lousy (but pretty) games heavily based on in-app purchases and having shallow gameplay designed to drive people to buy coins and whatnot. I refuse to touch those. Aside from the regular milking of my wallet, the game play just isn't satisfying to me. But it seems there are a whole lot of people who enjoy those kinds of games and play regularly. That's why the App Store has gone down that road. There's gobs of money to be made.
Unfortunately, the momentum of the platform leans strongly in that direction, and would be super-hard to change. Anyone that comes in and wants to do a deep console-level game at a price that makes business sense ($10-20 ore more) is going to have a heck of a time getting enough attention from customers. They are pretty much guaranteed to fail.
In contrast, we got a Nintendo Switch in our home at Christmas. It's a tablet-sized device with roughly the same computing horsepower as an iPad (though it is fan-cooled, helping with sustained performance). Gameplay on the Switch is absolutely console-quality. You can't get a much deeper gaming experience than Zelda or Mario Odyssey (two examples). You pay $60 for those games but customers expect it and developers are successful there. It's platform momentum in a very different direction.
So I don't play a lot of games on iOS.
There are a few exceptions to the "games on iOS suck" general rule. Minecraft is one. Then you have fun and unique action games that work extremely well with touch, like Smash Hit, Crossy Road, Badland, Chameleon Run, and Race the Sun. If you are in to flight simulators, Infinite Flight is getting surprisingly close to a PC level flight sim experience.
Unfortunately, the momentum of the platform leans strongly in that direction, and would be super-hard to change. Anyone that comes in and wants to do a deep console-level game at a price that makes business sense ($10-20 ore more) is going to have a heck of a time getting enough attention from customers. They are pretty much guaranteed to fail.
In contrast, we got a Nintendo Switch in our home at Christmas. It's a tablet-sized device with roughly the same computing horsepower as an iPad (though it is fan-cooled, helping with sustained performance). Gameplay on the Switch is absolutely console-quality. You can't get a much deeper gaming experience than Zelda or Mario Odyssey (two examples). You pay $60 for those games but customers expect it and developers are successful there. It's platform momentum in a very different direction.
So I don't play a lot of games on iOS.
There are a few exceptions to the "games on iOS suck" general rule. Minecraft is one. Then you have fun and unique action games that work extremely well with touch, like Smash Hit, Crossy Road, Badland, Chameleon Run, and Race the Sun. If you are in to flight simulators, Infinite Flight is getting surprisingly close to a PC level flight sim experience.
After the PS4 Pro noise debacle, I hope iPad Pro gets a full resolution video output and puts SCE out of business.
