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[Magic Carpet]

Yep, and Starfield will win Game of the Year.

Yep Starfield will get compared to everything. It's in every thread now.

 

[HarryKS]

As far as I know iPhones come with rechargeable batteries?

You're not charging it all day long. Those things sap your battery.

 

[Fbh]

I think beyond hardware limitations, what will hold back phones from being "consoles" is that a lot of people still want to be on their phone as they game.
Right now if there was some system to just put your phone on a docking station to play games on the TV with a controller your 2 options would be to disable notifications and ignore every other feature of your phone for 2 hours (or however long you want to play) OR constantly being interrupted by notifications and having to minimize the game every time you want to use some of the other features of your phone.

And yes I know there are some of us that actually can go multiple hours without accessing our phones, but will it be appealing to the general audiences?

"Here's my $4000 setup to play Resident Evil 4 Remake at 720p 30fps"

 

[Success]

Not sure if joking or not but if not, here's the thing.

The app store is full of free to play or cheap .99 to $5 games with a boat load of in game transactions. That's where the money lies when it comes to mobile gaming. Quick in and out games that are cheap or free that last a few minutes while travelings or pooping. That's what the average joe and jane want. They are already used to the idea of not having to pay directly for the game, they'd even say it's cheaper in the long run, even though they spend hundreds a year on it. Hell, they already can get a Call of Duty, Mario Kart, and Minecraft for free. Why would they pay $60 for a game on their phone?

The hardcore will complain about the price of the phone. Steam Deck, less than $1000. Asus ROG, less than $1000. No idea what Nintendo are working on but you can bet it's less than $1000. The price of the phone will be what makes them question this, that and having to buy an external device for a controller, and then buy the game. They'll just go why not buy a laptop? Why not buy a console with several games. What if I want an android. Nothing really pulls them in outside the novel idea of playing console games on their phone.

Apple has a huge market no doubt, and I can see some games seeing some success but I can't see $60 to $70 games having success on the current mobile market structure.

Think bigger picture.

I am not talking about casuals here.

Apple making hardcore gaming more and more convenient will inevitably lead to more hardcore gamers trying it.

We are still in the early stages of true native hardcore gaming on mobile devices.

Do you not think as hardcore games and the technology gets cheaper more and more hardcore gamers will try it and jump in?

 

[Starbuck2907]

…the PS4 launched 10 years ago (in 2013). Why would I want to game with decade old graphics???

 

[Bry0]

I don’t really understand the “cost” thing. People buying iPhones are gonna buy them anyway. They’re not gonna be like “oh I can’t get the 15 pro, the switch is way cheaper”. It’s like saying pc gaming is too expensive because it’s not $499 while ignoring the value it provides in a myriad of other ways.

I doubt people are actually doing that trade off? I think this is more about tapping into a new market than directly competing with consoles. Getting your software purchasable everywhere. If it makes a profit on iPhone then it’s viable in capcom’s eyes.

 

[twilo99]

I don’t really understand the “cost” thing. People buying iPhones are gonna buy them anyway. They’re not gonna be like “oh I can’t get the 15 pro, the switch is way cheaper”. It’s like saying pc gaming is too expensive because it’s not $499 while ignoring the value it provides in a myriad of other ways.

I doubt people are actually doing that trade off? I think this is more about tapping into a new market than directly competing with consoles. Getting your software purchasable everywhere. If it makes a profit on iPhone then it’s viable in capcom’s eyes.

Correct, no one is going to buy an iphone to game on, but maybe you can have the option to do so which will then save you money on buying seperate hardware specifically for gaming.

 

[Comandr]

Reasons to buy a console over using your smartphone:

This is going to be fun.

• Consoles are made first and foremost for gaming. It'll be a better experience.

Better is subjective. What defines better? Graphics? FPS? I guess Switch isn't a console then. Unless we are counting portability. Then the whole point is moot because the iPhone is arguably THE MOST portable. The best experience is the one that you get, right? Being able to play a game on a plane with noise cancelling surround sound headphones is a hell of a lot better experience than... listening to kids scream for 3 hours while wishing I was at home so I could play my console.

• Not wearing your smartphone out playing games (that wear it out faster). Mostly the battery, but storage takes a battering too. For the battery we're talking less than two years if you're a heavy gamer (oh, and that battery is glued in - sucker!)

I touched on this in a previous thread, but I'll reiterate for your benefit. No console is exempt from electronic wear, or any kind of wear and tear for that matter. What do you do if your Switch battery dies? Or your DualSense controller? What if you drop it? Cat knocks over your XSX? The hard drives fail in literally any of these consoles? Just about anything can happen to these devices. That's why we have warranties. The manufacturer offers a year warranty to cover you from some unusual circumstances, like early failing batteries or hard drives. But past the year mark, well sorry you're fucked I guess you can send it in for an expensive repair and we'll keep it for weeks.

Beyond the year mark, Apple offers AppleCare+ on just about all of its products. For the iPhone 15 Pro in question, its $9.99 a month. For the price of two coffees a month, any hardware defect you could experience for the duration you have unlimited coverage for free. You could game so hard you blast through a replacement battery every month and you'd get a new battery every month for free. Your phone could get run over by a monster truck and they'll give you a whole brand new one for $99. That's a hell of a lot better coverage than anything a console manufacturer offers I'll tell ya that.

• No need to worry if your gaming is going to leave you without your main way to contact people, or these days even pay for and verify (tickets) stuff.

I'll give you a half a point for this one. If someone is dumb enough to just blast through their whole battery without any kind of consideration for the consequences that's on them. For everyone else in the Apple eco system that already has an Apple Watch, this is completely a non-issue. Plane tickets, boarding passes, concert tickets, theater tickets, basically any sort of ticket I ever buy goes straight into my Wallet app which is accessible on my watch. Of course, I can still use my watch to pay for all of these things too. I can still send texts, make calls, check emails, and yes, even browse the web in a pinch - all on my watch if I had to do that.

• Not filling up your storage with games, so that when you are taking that video it stops due to lack of storage (oh, and no microSD cards for you, boyo!)

Games tend to be smaller on smaller devices. I imagine most games don't need full 4k res textures and all that. Newer iPhones support up to 1TB of storage. Maybe don't let your phone become a dumping ground for games? iOS can be set to automatically offload apps you aren't using. So if you haven't played a game in some time, it will automatically delete the majority of the files without deleting any of your login or save data. Given that virtually every carrier offers unlimited 5G these days, there's virtually nothing stopping you from just redownloading games when you want to play them. My 5G is faster than my home wifi speed too.. sooo.. FURTHERMORE, if you're planning on taking a lot of videos, just bring some kind of usb c drive with you. The Camera app will automatically recognize that storage is plugged in and save videos there unless you tell it not to. So while yeah, an attachment isn't as convenient as an internal SD card, it's not like options don't exist.

• No distractions on the same device you are gaming on.

IDK. Do Not Disturb is a real thing. Also Apple Watch?

• For responsible parents, not having your children's games console actually mostly be a communication device.

Apple offers extremely robust parental controls through Screen Time, including blocking certain apps, blocking certain app categories, blocking out certain times of the day, setting app timers. A parent could easily designate a child only play, watch, or otherwise consume content rated for them between certain hours of certain days. And of course, all purchases must be approved by the parent. Should a child somehow attempt to make a purchase, the parent gets an immediate notification for approval. Thank you, next.

Variety is the spice of life.

The words ring hollow coming from you, by suggesting that this new variable is bad at every possible opportunity.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I would love to have the kind of Star Trek technology that turns a smartphone into a €2000 gaming PC. I'm sure it will happen some day.

 

[Felessan]

I would love to have the kind of Star Trek technology that turns a smartphone into a €2000 gaming PC. I'm sure it will happen some day.

Yeah, sure, some fantasy elven technology that turns 10 Watts TDP to 1000 Watts TDP. It's clearly in the near future.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

A horrible experience for families, first of all.

What do you propose doing... buy your kids each a current-generation iPhone to play games, then have them takes turns hooking it up to a TV, and upgrade it every 2 years with another pointless forced obsolescence? Give each kid an iPhone and gaming will be least of your concerns, also the last thing the kid will do after melting his/her brain on TikTok and other trash.

Or would you put your own parental phone on a stand to let the kids play, and lose access to it for a while plus have notifications possibly pop up? Apple's account management for shared devices has always been trash. How many families have had an iPad for gaming use and run into this with the awful single-user expectation on every part of its OS?

On top of that you have the worst, most ad-saturated App Store imaginable, where you're lucky to find a non-spam / non-trash game within the first 1000 search results for anything.

It's a non-starter for a family gaming device.

 

[Lunarorbit]

Yep Starfield will get compared to everything. It's in every thread now.

I heard you could turn your Starfield into a console too.

 

[Comandr]

A horrible experience for families, first of all.

What do you propose doing... buy your kids each a current-generation iPhone to play games, then have them takes turns hooking it up to a TV, and upgrade it every 2 years with another pointless forced obsolescence? Give each kid an iPhone and gaming will be least of your concerns, also the last thing the kid will do after melting his/her brain on TikTok and other trash.

Or would you put your own parental phone on a stand to let the kids play, and lose access to it for a while plus have notifications possibly pop up? Apple's account management for shared devices has always been trash. How many families have had an iPad for gaming use and run into this with the awful single-user expectation on every part of its OS?

On top of that you have the worst, most ad-saturated App Store imaginable, where you're lucky to find a non-spam / non-trash game within the first 1000 search results for anything.

It's a non-starter for a family gaming device.

You bring up some good points, but some of the criticism I feel is unfair. I don't understand or agree with your comment about forced obsolescence. My boss is still using the original iPhone SE from 2016. 7 years is a LONG time for a cell phone, particularly one from that era where they were evolving extremely rapidly. Today's devices with processors just as fast as desktop computers and nearly as much ram - they will go a lot farther than the iPhone SE's dual core 1.85ghz processor and 2GB of ram.

A phone tends to be a deeply personal device, however I agree that the iPad experience needs to be overhauled. Focus mode is the closest we have right now to multiple users. With the ability to create themes and only access certain apps under different Focuses. Up to now, the expectation has always been one device per person, including iPad. Apple TV offers multi-user support, and I think that functionality should come to iPad as well.

The App Store experience is terrible. Earlier in another thread I mentioned searching for Resident Evil 4. It's the 8th result in the search. That's ridiculous. Perfectly spelling my search should mean that result is the top. Not.. Puzzles & Survival or The Walking Dead.

I would actually like to see a completely new tab, or, ideally, a whole new app for premium games. The App Store is becoming the iOS equivalent of iTunes. It's just too fuckin' bloated and it's being crushed under its own weight. There are over 50 Vampire Survivors clones (Ironic, I know, being that Vampire Survivors is a clone, itself) in the app store before I stopped counting. I think that if Apple is going to try to get people to take gaming on their devices seriously, they need to really curate the apps.

How long before Evil Resident 4 comes out for $29.99 or Assassin: Creed for $39.99 and all of these copycats come out of the woodwork trying to scam people out of even MORE money? If you want to set a precedent, you have to set rules.

 

[BacklashWave534]

Yep Starfield will get compared to everything. It's in every thread now.

I actually like Starfield. Glad i could irritate you.

 

[Verchod]

Can it run Cyberpunk 2077 w/ path tracing ?

 

[JCK75]

Gaming on a phone is dogshit

 

[Kdad]

Nowadays it doesn’t take much drama to tumble down in stock price and become an easy prey.

It isn't about the price, it's about Japan's protectionism. You might see SONY sell off a camera division or music. And movies but the core consumer electronics won't be controlled outside Japan esp they are central to Japan seeking chip manufacturing locally and Sony's hands are deep in.

 

[poppabk]

I don’t really understand the “cost” thing. People buying iPhones are gonna buy them anyway. They’re not gonna be like “oh I can’t get the 15 pro, the switch is way cheaper”. It’s like saying pc gaming is too expensive because it’s not $499 while ignoring the value it provides in a myriad of other ways.

I doubt people are actually doing that trade off? I think this is more about tapping into a new market than directly competing with consoles. Getting your software purchasable everywhere. If it makes a profit on iPhone then it’s viable in capcom’s eyes.

But who wants to spend $1500 on a phone only to have it tied up for long periods as a second rate $400 console? It just doesn't make sense especially in a household bigger than one person.

 

[Sorcerer]

Apple needs to do something with the Apple TV (besides Arcade). The interface, if they can keep it for a more game-oriented machine, is quite fantastic on the device. Quick resume is 3 seconds with tons of apps open. I don't even bother to save my game most of the time. Although I would be screwed during a power failure. Quite Surprisingly, controller remapping is built in for Xbox, Nintendo, and Playstation controllers. (except for back buttons). I think it makes more sense than a phone. As mentioned, games such as RE4, Assassins Creed, will probably shred your phones battery life, and the interruptions will probably be constant as a phone needs to do phone things.

 

[Sorcerer]

edit

 

[nashman]

First Part Games. Period. Thats why Sony is all in on first party. Their only advantage on moneyhat Apple/Amazon/MS. Bungie was a great (technicallly second party)move aswell.

 

[IAmRei]

The price
The control
The exclusives

 

[reinking]

I do not think phones will ever replace consoles but I do play games on my phone more than I do my Switch. Why? Because it is always with me. Taking the idea of seamlessly docking a phone to continue a game on a larger screen is all that really needs to happen here. I was doing this years ago with an Android phone for playing retro games. It was an inconvenience to hook up the adapter back then because it was a lot of plugging and unplugging but make an easy to use docking station that also charges and bam, instant gaming on a bigger screen. Again, not a console replacement but it does not have to be. It just has to have enough software and provide a Switch-like experience. If Apple could somehow take the concept of MagSafe and apply it to a fast data transfer it would be awesome.

 

[IFireflyl]

I'm glad the OP is banned.

 

[nial]

I'm glad the OP is banned.

Yep, I remember him being a rabid warrior.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

I think beyond hardware limitations, what will hold back phones from being "consoles" is that a lot of people still want to be on their phone as they game.
Right now if there was some system to just put your phone on a docking station to play games on the TV with a controller your 2 options would be to disable notifications and ignore every other feature of your phone for 2 hours (or however long you want to play) OR constantly being interrupted by notifications and having to minimize the game every time you want to use some of the other features of your phone.

And yes I know there are some of us that actually can go multiple hours without accessing our phones, but will it be appealing to the general audiences?




"Here's my $4000 setup to play Resident Evil 4 Remake at 720p 30fps"

The Xbox/some wireless headset already handles some of those issues e.g. simultaneously connect multiple bluetooth devices, such as console and phone and a volume mixer too. I do it with my Series X now.

Messaging etc would be voice/AI driven rather than typed.

Edit: At a certain tech level latency of wireless in-home negate the need to dock.

 

[Tams]

This is going to be fun.

Oh, you make my life easy.

Better is subjective. What defines better? Graphics? FPS? I guess Switch isn't a console then. Unless we are counting portability. Then the whole point is moot because the iPhone is arguably THE MOST portable. The best experience is the one that you get, right? Being able to play a game on a plane with noise cancelling surround sound headphones is a hell of a lot better experience than... listening to kids scream for 3 hours while wishing I was at home so I could play my console.

Better in the the device is designed from the ground up for gaming. Controls are where they need to be and integrated. Graphics can be one way a console maker goes.

Ultimately, developers know exactly what console owners have at a minimum. For an iPhone that's... the SoC and a touchscreen.

Maybe you should just get your kids Switches.

I touched on this in a previous thread, but I'll reiterate for your benefit. No console is exempt from electronic wear, or any kind of wear and tear for that matter. What do you do if your Switch battery dies? Or your DualSense controller? What if you drop it? Cat knocks over your XSX? The hard drives fail in literally any of these consoles? Just about anything can happen to these devices. That's why we have warranties. The manufacturer offers a year warranty to cover you from some unusual circumstances, like early failing batteries or hard drives. But past the year mark, well sorry you're fucked I guess you can send it in for an expensive repair and we'll keep it for weeks.

Beyond the year mark, Apple offers AppleCare+ on just about all of its products. For the iPhone 15 Pro in question, its $9.99 a month. For the price of two coffees a month, any hardware defect you could experience for the duration you have unlimited coverage for free. You could game so hard you blast through a replacement battery every month and you'd get a new battery every month for free. Your phone could get run over by a monster truck and they'll give you a whole brand new one for $99. That's a hell of a lot better coverage than anything a console manufacturer offers I'll tell ya that.

I'll give you a half a point for this one. If someone is dumb enough to just blast through their whole battery without any kind of consideration for the consequences that's on them. For everyone else in the Apple eco system that already has an Apple Watch, this is completely a non-issue. Plane tickets, boarding passes, concert tickets, theater tickets, basically any sort of ticket I ever buy goes straight into my Wallet app which is accessible on my watch. Of course, I can still use my watch to pay for all of these things too. I can still send texts, make calls, check emails, and yes, even browse the web in a pinch - all on my watch if I had to do that.

Only, for many people this will be on their main computing device that they need for other things.

The point is, having a separate device for gaming (which is heavy wear on a device) reduces the wear on someone's main computing device. Another iPhone could be a option there, I'll give you that, but then iPhones are not designed specifically for gaming.

As for insurance... believe it or not, if you start costing them money, they will use that loophole in the contract you signed to not accept you upon renewal.

Games tend to be smaller on smaller devices. I imagine most games don't need full 4k res textures and all that. Newer iPhones support up to 1TB of storage. Maybe don't let your phone become a dumping ground for games? iOS can be set to automatically offload apps you aren't using. So if you haven't played a game in some time, it will automatically delete the majority of the files without deleting any of your login or save data. Given that virtually every carrier offers unlimited 5G these days, there's virtually nothing stopping you from just redownloading games when you want to play them. My 5G is faster than my home wifi speed too.. sooo.. FURTHERMORE, if you're planning on taking a lot of videos, just bring some kind of usb c drive with you. The Camera app will automatically recognize that storage is plugged in and save videos there unless you tell it not to. So while yeah, an attachment isn't as convenient as an internal SD card, it's not like options don't exist.

IDK. Do Not Disturb is a real thing. Also Apple Watch?

They are still big, and videos are getting ever bigger in size. 8k ones are going to chew through storage. And given the Apple SoCs are very powerful (though, predictably now stagnating), the game sizes are going to be big.

Lol at plugging in things when using a camera.

Apple offers extremely robust parental controls through Screen Time, including blocking certain apps, blocking certain app categories, blocking out certain times of the day, setting app timers. A parent could easily designate a child only play, watch, or otherwise consume content rated for them between certain hours of certain days. And of course, all purchases must be approved by the parent. Should a child somehow attempt to make a purchase, the parent gets an immediate notification for approval. Thank you, next.

Still far easier to do on dedicated separate device, which in the case of Nintendo at least, deliberately also doesn't have non-gaming features. As default; so no faffing around setting it all up.

Trust me; the ease with which you can inherently use a smartphone for social media and the like makes it much easier to get at it, even with blocks. As kids, we only saw blocks like that as a challenge - rules are made to be broken and all that.

Most importantly, too many parents are either too busy or stupid to set up parental controls properly.

The words ring hollow coming from you, by suggesting that this new variable is bad at every possible opportunity.

And you sound like you're drowning in the KoolAid. Completely unable to see why no one could ever want a console.