The New iPad is out on Friday, and with it brings the the usual rush of PR commentary and developer snippets. First out of the block is Epic Games, with company president Mike Capps praising the platform’s strengths.
“Apple is definitely building their devices as if they care a lot about ‘triple-A’ games,” said Capps, speaking to Reuters. “It is quite easy to imagine a world where an iPad is more powerful than a home console, where it wirelessly talks to your TV and wirelessly talks to your controller and becomes your new console.”
Epic’s Infinity Blade series is possibly the best representation of the visual power of the iPad when coupled with something like the Unreal Engine, but he’s not alone, with EA’s Frank Gibeau adding fuel to the fire.
“When the iPad gets to the processing power that’s equal to an Xbox 360 and it connects to a television, that’s no big deal to us,” he said. “We’ll put the game through the iPad and have it display through the television.”
They’re talking about adding a controller, of course, and running the thing through a TV. That might ignore the real point of a tablet computer like the iPad, but it does show that, if Apple up the specs again for whatever’s around the corner, ‘proper’ console gaming won’t be all that far behind it.
JBoo
If Apple can give me the brilliant PlayStation Exclusives i get each Gen off SONY then i will buy 1(i.e they never will) LoL:D
DJ Judas
Ignoring the claims of power etc and focusing on the aspect of iPad doubling up for uses as multiple different spaces within the ‘entertainment lifestyle’, these claims seem to forget that people like dedicated tools for the job. It’s brilliant when one tool does many things, but only if they do them inclusively within its normal use environment.
If this multi-use solution comes at the price of having to plug it into and out of different interfaces then it won’t get used as such and the dedicated devices will win over. If I plug my phone into my TV I can use it to watch 1080p files, but it still sits at the bottom of a long hierarchy of devices that will do this for me purely because its not my phone’s primary application.
skibadee
they said that on the last one it looked pants.
skibadee
Vita takes Apple to the cleaners on games already it has been out 5 mins.
TheDemocrodile
the Vita and the new iPad have the same graphics chip mate.
skibadee
you say that come back to me when one of the games is the standard of uncharted.
Boiler
I’m I the only person that thinks this is awesome?
You’ve got an iPad for surfing in bed, reading a comic/book on the way to work, or watching a movie, or listening to music. Checking your facebook/twitter feeds, updating your blog etc etc…
Then the best part. You have a massively powerful console that you can take with you wherever you go.
Imagine playing something like Skyrim on it?
At home pair the iPad to your TV and a controller.
Put in a few hours in the evening, kill a few dragons, plunder a few dungeons…
…and then (I realise it won’t control as well touch screen) but anyway you can continue your game on the train in the morning.
You might have to leave the missions that require dexterity until you get home, but that’s no big deal.
It’s the Vita to PS3 remote play but you don’t have to rely on an internet connection. You’re already carrying the console, the game and your saved data around with you.
Brilliant!
I realise it would be expensive, but hey ho. I’d buy it.
Omac_brother
Epic have a great imagination.
TheDemocrodile
of course it will, i cant see anyone being surprised by it, 6-7 year old hardware vs modern hardware, guess what wins?
its mostly irrelevant anyway, touchscreen gaming has a long way to go before it can rival controller/mouse gaming plus the whole point is that its a mobile platform, the minute you need to take fairly bulky peripherals with you is the minute casual users get turned off.
hazelam
when i read that first i thought you said 67 year old hardware, and i wondered, what games console came out in the fifties?
reading fail on my part. ^_^
possibly a maths fail too, i’m not too sure on that one.
Forrest_01
Possibly not reading fail if you read the first few words from the main page snippets, as they include absolutely no punctuation. So it would have appeared as 67. :)
Bladesteel
Yes by the end of a consoles life the mobile processors may exceed it and still be able to be used in a portable device, but by then the same tech may be used by the processor in a console, with adequate cooling and without concern for battery life.
A portaable device will equal a stationary one only when the developers can’t find any use for the extra power that will be possible on a system that don’t have to account for being portable.
Topher 2.0
It’s also quite easy to imagine a world where you place sparrow eggs on your head and sing to the sea gods that will grant you the ability to become the game, which has graphics that are more realistic than real life. It’s fucking easy to imagine anything
skibadee
epic have to say this like do on every new ipad release they want everyone using there engine just like they keep bigging up wiiu which uses there engine.
aerobes
That’s the thing about imagining. It is easy and most of the time it’s also utter nonsense.