How Apple plans to take over Gaming

 

                          The picture was taken from the medium.com

Gaming isn’t something you’d associate Apple with. In fact, all of the most popular gaming streamers would pick playing on Microsoft over MacOS any day. Macs have a terrible reputation when it comes to any sort of game. This is due to their lower power graphics, bad cooling system, and very high price. Many games aren’t even available to be played on MacOS.


It is just not the company you go for when you want a machine to enjoy games on.
So how could Apple ever take over the gaming industry?

You wouldn’t think a company like Apple, who’s one of the most hated companies by the gaming community could ever transition to something where people would consider using a Mac for gaming, but it’s quite possible.





They don’t even have to create their own gaming console in order to prove themselves. That would be a clumsy solution. They wouldn’t bother to tap into a market where they already failed back in the ’90s with the Pippin console. Not to mention the gaming industry is incredibly competitive and doesn’t have much room for innovation.
Apple’s most likely to capitalize on their existing userbase and community of developers.

There are 1.5 billion active iOS devices in the world, with 20 million registered developers. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft combined could never even approach these numbers, so it makes perfect sense for Apple to bring gaming to their iOS community instead of creating a whole different system (a console).

If you think it’s unfair to equate iOS devices and gaming consoles, you’re just wrong.

The Xbox and PlayStation are containers of technology that interface with a TV screen and a controller. The iPad and iPhone also contain technology, are compatible with Xbox and Playstation controllers, and have a built-in screen.

It is true there’s a difference in the graphics performance when it comes to these but the gap between them is more narrow than you’d think.

The iPad Pro from 2018 has graphics comparable to the Xbox One S and Apple’s custom chipset only gets better every year.

The only barrier Apple faces to truly taking on consoles is the software itself.

The most popular and impressive triple-A titles are only released on dedicated consoles and typically cost $60. When it comes to the iOS app store, it’s difficult for developers to price a game over $5, let alone $60.

So there’s this built-in obstacle to mobile gaming that discourages big-budget games and encourages low cost or free games.

We have seen a convergence of these two models — as iOS devices have become more powerful, developers have ported major games from older generation consoles. I don’t see any reason as to why this wouldn’t continue and maybe become even more common as the iOS platform becomes more profitable for major game developers.

When it comes to developers and publishers making money from video games, consider that the digital app store model along with in-app purchases began on iOS. Today every major gaming company is taking that same approach — there’s the Playstation store, Microsoft store for Xbox, Eshop for the Nintendo Switch, and even Steam which is used to shop for games on PC. On each of these stores, you’ll find a marketplace that isn’t much different than what you’re used to seeing on iOS. You can find games for $10, $5, or even free.

Again, the differences between mobile and console gaming are smaller than ever before.


Apple is preparing for the day when the two are indistinguishable.

They’ve already done something like this before. Back in the 2000s, digital cameras were seen as the only route to becoming a professional photographer. Nowadays, iPhones are more than enough to build a career off of the pictures taken on them.


This is only the beginning. The Apple Arcade gaming service was only launched a year ago and it already has console-quality games. Another overlooked element to gaming industry domination is convenience. Currently, the best selling gaming console is the Nintendo Switch, and a big reason why users love it so much is the convenience of playing on the go.

This convenience element is the entire idea behind mobile gaming. It’s something a lot of people prioritize over graphics and something that could make Apple completely dominate the gaming industry.

source. medium.com

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