It was a joke.  I find certain people's obsession with Hellblade amusing, considering it always was niche. 

Yea anyone who knows anything about video game sales knows great graphics  don't guarantee success they just help. The game has to be appealing in it's own way, for example if rise of the ronin had amazing graphics it would have sold much better .

It is all about balance.  I think RE8 is the best example.  Played great, looked great, excellent design, good story, focused (no filler) and great replay value.  And it sold well.  

There was a time when I enjoyed gaming on my iPads, especially point&click adventures, puzzle games and visual novels.

The only iOS games I paid more than €10 were game with good touchscreen controls:

• Ace Attorney 4: Apollo Justice HD - €11
• Ace Attorney 5: Dual Destinies + Turnabout Reclaime - €21
• Ace Attorney 6: Spirit of Justice + Turnabout Time Traveler - €21 
• Ace Attorney Investigations 1: Miles Edgeworth - €17
• Layton's Mystery Journey - Katrielle und die Verschwörung der Millionäre - €15
• Sid Meier's Civilization 6 - €13

If I ever upgrade to an M2/M4 iPad, I'd probably try out the free versions of these AAA-games, but wouldn't pay more than €10 for them.

I don't like attaching controllers to an iPad... and even the most expensive iPhones + backbone controller can't compete with a much cheaper Steam Deck:

Who doesn't want to spend $1500 on an iPad to get sub 30 fps?

@HardstruckPlatinum I thought you said iPhone would be the NSwitch killer a few weeks ago?

Who's buying an ipad strictly for gaming?

I mean I think this has much more to do with the demographics ,controls, and pricing than the want for triple games in handheld form. I mean a certain someone dared to compare handheld PCs while dodging the soon to be highest selling console in history. I'm sure those games would have all performed better on Switch than Iphones/Ipads. Switch is proof that there is certainly desire for those types of games in handheld form factor.

100% Any gaming on a ipad would be a secondary function. I always wanted to play DOS on the ipad actually.

I don't know.  But a few people thought the big 3 (Nintendo, MS and Sony) needed to be afraid.  But I think the rest of knew it was a nice feature but the iPad was never a gaming first device.