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Forums - General - Apple has ALREADY released their gaming device.

Entroper on 06 March 2008
sc94597 said:

If you click the link PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor. it describes the co-processors. The MBX 3D is the name of the iphones.


This is actually a rather powerful little bugger, now that I know about it.  There was PowerVR hardware in the Dreamcast, and I imagine the MBX is more powerful than that was.  Because of their tile-based rendering architecture, PowerVR hardware tends to have modest specs, but results comparable to hardware with double those specs.



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sc94597 on 06 March 2008
Entroper said:
sc94597 said:

If you click the link PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor. it describes the co-processors. The MBX 3D is the name of the iphones.


This is actually a rather powerful little bugger, now that I know about it. There was PowerVR hardware in the Dreamcast, and I imagine the MBX is more powerful than that was. Because of their tile-based rendering architecture, PowerVR hardware tends to have modest specs, but results comparable to hardware with double those specs.


 No wonder it is so expensive. It is very advance for a handheld. SO what do you compare it to ps2,Gamecube,Xbox. 



Sam Yikin on 06 March 2008
sc94597 said:
Entroper said:
sc94597 said:

If you click the link PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor. it describes the co-processors. The MBX 3D is the name of the iphones.


This is actually a rather powerful little bugger, now that I know about it. There was PowerVR hardware in the Dreamcast, and I imagine the MBX is more powerful than that was. Because of their tile-based rendering architecture, PowerVR hardware tends to have modest specs, but results comparable to hardware with double those specs.


 No wonder it is so expensive. It is very advance for a handheld. SO what do you compare it to ps2,Gamecube,Xbox. 


 

It's probably closer to a PS2 from what I've heard, but...

Anyway, so these revelations about the system's power are kind of surprising (at least to me.) It seems that the potential for games is even higher than I thought. Maybe they won't have to release a dedicated gaming system, if the iPhone game business takes off they could start to market it as a game/iPhone hybrid.



labrats5 on 06 March 2008

The iphone will take off as a gaming device because it has all the advantages of a pc sans the pc's greatest flaws. The initial cost for the iphone as a gaming device is exactly the same as a pc: $0.00. You already have PC because you need it for PC things, just like you already have a phone because you need it for phone things, and the iphone is already one of the best smartphones out there. When you buy a pc or an iphone, you get the gaming device for free (unless you invested in a graphics card you only needed for gaming, in which that card counts towards your gaming cost).

The iphone/ipod touch has a fairly large base for only being on the market for about 8 months, and best of all, that installed base is mostly tech savvy, upper class, and young. Prime demographic for videogaming. Also, to say that the iphone will fail because it doesn't have buttons makes about as much sense as saying that consoles will fail because they don't use a mouse. The iphone has powerful controls, which is all that matters. As long as the controls have depth, games can be designed around it. Just because you can't play a vs. fighter on it doesn't means it will suck, any more than consoles suck 'cause you can't do RTS. There will be games on the iphone that will only be possible on an iphone. Also, the vs. figher is pretty much the only genre i've come up with that I really don't think is possible on an iphone. 

The one thing the iphone doesn't have is hardware upgrading, which means that the platform is standardized, much like a console. Also, the decentralized distrobution channels on the internet allow for unprecedented amounts of piracy These are the flaw that hold PC gaming back, and the iphone has neither. Unless apple really screws this up somehow, the iphone will have a significant presence in the gaming world.

 



Entroper on 06 March 2008
sc94597 said:

No wonder it is so expensive. It is very advance for a handheld. SO what do you compare it to ps2,Gamecube,Xbox.


Well, it's really difficult to know without running benchmarks.  I mean, not that we have reliable benchmarks on the GC/Xbox/PS2, but their graphics hardware is much more similar to PC graphics hardware than the PowerVR stuff.  I believe the last performance test I saw on a PowerVR card was the Kyro II vs. the GeForce 2 GTS and the ATi Radeon.  You know, the "Radeon", as in the first one, before they even had numbers and other suffixes.  :)

A quick Google search turned this up: http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/006/05/powervr_mbx.htm
There are a few screenshots, but none that give an accurate impression of game-like performance.



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Sam Yikin on 06 March 2008
labrats5 said:

Hmm. you actually belive that most PSP owners buy games for it. I find that funny.

The iphone will take off as a gaming device because it has all the advantages of a pc sans the pc's greatest flaws. The initial cost for the iphone as a gaming device is exactly the same as a pc: $0.00. You already have PC because you need it for PC things, just like you already have a phone because you need it for phone things, and the iphone is already one of the best smartphones out there. When you buy a pc or an iphone, you get the gaming device for free (unless you invested in a graphics card you only needed for gaming, in which that card counts towards your gaming cost).

The iphone/ipod touch has a fairly large base for only being on the market for about 8 months, and best of all, that installed base is mostly tech savvy, upper class, and young. Prime demographic for videogaming. Also, to say that the iphone will fail because it doesn't have buttons makes about as much sense as saying that consoles will fail because they don't use a mouse. The iphone has powerful controls, which is all that matters. As long as the controls have depth, games can be designed around it. Just because you can't play an FPS on it doesn't means it will suck. There will be games on the iphone that will only be possible on an iphone. 

The one thing the iphone doesn't have is hardware upgrading, which means that the platform is standardized, much like a console. Also, the decentralized distrobution channels on the internet allow for unprecedented amounts of piracy These are the flaw that hold PC gaming back, and the iphone has neither. Unless apple really screws this up somehow, the iphone will have a significant presence in the gaming world.

 


Only if they get enough developers onboard and maximize the system's potential. 

At this point they seem to be on track for both. 



Sam Yikin on 06 March 2008
labrats5 said:

Hmm. you actually belive that most PSP owners buy games for it. I find that funny.

The iphone will take off as a gaming device because it has all the advantages of a pc sans the pc's greatest flaws. The initial cost for the iphone as a gaming device is exactly the same as a pc: $0.00. You already have PC because you need it for PC things, just like you already have a phone because you need it for phone things, and the iphone is already one of the best smartphones out there. When you buy a pc or an iphone, you get the gaming device for free (unless you invested in a graphics card you only needed for gaming, in which that card counts towards your gaming cost).

The iphone/ipod touch has a fairly large base for only being on the market for about 8 months, and best of all, that installed base is mostly tech savvy, upper class, and young. Prime demographic for videogaming. Also, to say that the iphone will fail because it doesn't have buttons makes about as much sense as saying that consoles will fail because they don't use a mouse. The iphone has powerful controls, which is all that matters. As long as the controls have depth, games can be designed around it. Just because you can't play an FPS on it doesn't means it will suck. There will be games on the iphone that will only be possible on an iphone. 

The one thing the iphone doesn't have is hardware upgrading, which means that the platform is standardized, much like a console. Also, the decentralized distrobution channels on the internet allow for unprecedented amounts of piracy These are the flaw that hold PC gaming back, and the iphone has neither. Unless apple really screws this up somehow, the iphone will have a significant presence in the gaming world.

 


Only if they get enough developers onboard and maximize the system's potential. 

At this point they seem to be on track for both. 



Sam Yikin on 06 March 2008

Double post.



sc94597 on 06 March 2008
Sam Yikin said:
triple post.

 fixed



rocketpig on 07 March 2008
Garcian Smith said:
rocketpig said:
Garcian Smith said:
Reasons why the iPhone as a gaming device will never take off:

-Device limitations. The iPhone has no face buttons or D-pad and does not accept external storage media (flash cartridges, etc.) The device also has an imprecise touchscreen which requires the use of bare hands, making precise touchscreen effects (as the DS stylus is capable of) impossible.

-Little software support. The iPhone as a gaming device will not break into the Japanese market, since it's made by an American company, and Western developers have already picked either the PSP or DS to support. Finally, Apple does not have an internal game development house, meaning they're entirely at the mercy of third parties. (As a note, no company without an internal dev studio has ever succeeded in entering either the console or handheld market.)

-Too expensive. At $400 + a yearly contract, nobody will buy it for gaming when the alternatives are a $130 DS or a $170 PSP, each of which have a sizable game library to their credit.

Apple doesn't want people to buy it for gaming. They want people to buy it, period.

If the thing gets a few decent games, it will be the equivalent to a PSP with crappier games, better multimedia functionality, internet access everywhere, phone capabilities, and one of the best interfaces ever devised for a portable device.


 Except it probably won't even get "a few decent games." Why would any company develop a game for the iPhone, which has an install base of - what, 5 million? - with only a small percentage of those interested in buying games, when they could develop for 60 million on the DS or 30 million on the PSP?


Developers getting 70% of revenue might have something to say about that.




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