Console are Now Tablets = Home Consoles Doomed?

[greenmedic88]

The existing problems with gaming on iOS:

Interface: default is touch based which caters to specific UI types that don't translate well (or at all) to traditional controls.

The solution is for Apple to release a standardized BT controller that iOS developers can use as their default controller. Not an elegant solution, but having a standardized controller goes a long way in closing the interface gap for traditional interface games.

Processing power: gap is shrinking, make no mistake, but it's not closed yet as the current chipsets being used (which are the same SoC type set ups used in tablets/smartphones) simply can't be placed in a passively cooled, hand held package and produce the same performance.

This is changing, but won't change over the next year or two. Who knows how long. Software can't change this; it will take hardware engineering and advances in photolithography to miniaturize and increase power efficiency and reduce power consumption and operating temperatures.

Memory gap is another issue. Quite a difference between the 1-2GB of RAM currently used by tablets and the 8GB currently used by consoles. Not a huge issue, but it is a factor when developing for mobile.

Licensing and development support issues: most developers say or will claim in surveys that they plan to develop on mobile platforms before consoles, or at least more developers will say they are planning on developing for mobile rather than console (smaller developers). However, the most expensive games and ones that have legitimate marketing efforts to promote the games remain console games.

Apple has the leverage to promote more development from the major publishers, even as they gravitate towards mobile naturally due to following market growth patterns. We're already seeing major games that were console/PC only showing up on mobile, albeit in stripped down form.

This is the least of the problems for mobile and more specifically iOS. We're seeing this now.

And the last of the problems for iOS? Image.

We're seeing it right here on this forum. Traditional gamers are extremely resistant to the concept of gaming on a tablet or smartphone, or at least as a primary platform or replacement for traditional consoles and handhelds.

Mobile is seen as the choice of "casuals" as described in a derisive manner although it is the same casuals who bought the Wii and to a lesser extent, Kinect and made them commercial successes due to a growth market. They are driving sales and more importantly, they are driving growth, which is where forward thinkers are looking when it comes to future support and projects.

Markets vary, but from what I see in mine are a lot of small children who love the iPad and love the iPhone. It allows them to watch their shows, their home videos, play their games, many of which are tied to the shows they watch and do educational apps and read their books. Children's games currently have the best support on mobile simply because they tend to be lower budget and developers know that the children's shows that are being watched on iOS devices are a pretty obvious choice for games based upon the same shows.

But the telling factor here is that the current generation of first time gamers (children) are more often than not, gaming on iOS or maybe Android. I just see a lot of small kids playing with their parent's iPhones/iPads and it's pretty safe to assume they're not doing e-mail.

My nephew and niece have never played games on any of the consoles in their house. They just want to play on the iPad because that's where their games are. Like it or not, they are the future, not us.