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What is stopping iPhone from replacing consoles in the future?

They don't haves the Sony or Nintendos exclusives peoples care about

get right outta town with this crud

oh-yeah-mrw.gif
Simple, Apple buys out Sony. Problem solved.
 

Comandr

Member
I'm going to weigh in. Some of these posts have been amusing, many of them have been cringe worthy.

Let's examine the facts.

Apple is a company that designs and provides solutions.

Once upon a time, computers were big and clunky and couldn't do much. Enter Macintosh. It was not only affordable, but it was one of the first home computers to use a mouse and a GUI. No more doing everything on command line.

Fast forward. Everyone loves music, but cd players and cassette players just weren't really really great experiences for listening to music. Who carries a bunch of CDs or tapes around. Besides, in the age of the INTERNET, everything was going digital, baby. Enter iPod. This thing could hold ONE THOUSAND (1000) songs, and had a built in battery that lasted 10 hours on a charge.

We jump again to 2007. Steve Jobs takes the stage and introduces a device that can make calls, take photos, send messages, do email, browse the web, and it was ALSO a wide screen iPod. Enter iPhone. The device that changed everything. I had a smart phone at the time. It was a HTC TyTn 2. It ran a mobile version of Windows. If I wanted to write myself a note, I just took out my cool stylus and clicked on START > Programs > Accessories > Notepad. Then I could slide the screen up and hammer away on my full qwerty keyboard like a bad ass.

But ... When I went to the Apple Store in 2007 and held an iPhone in my hands... "NOTES" was just sitting there on the home screen. It was just one tap, and a keyboard popped up and I could type whatever I wanted. Not... stylus, click click click click slide type.

That-- that was revolutionary. It showed us that things could be simple. Technology could be made in a way that made our lives easier, more convenient- and by extension- more enjoyable, if even only in a small way.

So we jump again to 2023, we look at the gaming landscape and ... what problem does Apple need to solve here? Gaming is clearly a multibillion dollar industry, but I believe that the core gaming market and mobile markets are inherently separate beasts. While I do think as mobile technology continues to RAPIDLY improve, we will see more mobile games that share some DNA with their big brothers. Games like Fortnite or Apex Legends prove that games can scale to small screens pretty well. The thing that will prevent the iPhone from becoming a major console competitor is quite simply, lack of tactile control and a dedicated thermal solution.

Let me tell you why Apple would never make a controller for iPhone, or some kind of ... cooling fan add on. The reason is really quite simple. For Apple to create a first party product to attach to or in some way integrate with the iPhone to play games, it means quite explicitly that the iPhone is not a good way to play games. For Apple to say, make a controller accessory that has a cooling fan built into it, that is Apple admitting "We designed a product that doesn't do this well so here is another product to fix our first mistake."

They would never, ever, ever, ever do that. If Apple was, for some reason, going to make a gaming-centric device, you can bet your ass it would be designed from the ground up with gaming in mind, not as an afterthought. Being that you can play so many games on Apple TV with a controller, I don't see them creating any more of a dedicated gaming system than that for a very long time, if ever. Frankly, they don't need to. They already make money hand over fist in the gaming department. There is no need to invest more resources to what could be considered a niche device.

iPhones are for everyone. iPads are for everyone. AirPods are for everyone. Macs are for everyone. Whether you are 8 or 80, you can get use out of these devices. But that is NOT true of a dedicated gaming device.

TL;DR: There is no TL;DR. 🖕
 

L*][*N*K

Banned
A decade ago Justin Davis on IGN used to make those claims and I think he died on that hill, he probably still thinks Infinity Blade 2 is the truest video game blockbuster.
 
I think it's all on Apple.
It's too early but things are moving. First, emulation is now great on M2, and then pro apps (like Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro) are coming to iPad Pro. Finally, with the reveal this year of a VR machine, it could get a boost in time for this time happen.

Anyway, those big games are coming to iPhone (Arcade is a part of the answer I guess), the when and how are still the questions. But the marketing is ready since Sony is bringing a PlayStation controller to iPhone. Let's wait and see.

Apple needs to create their own games based on their hardwares and make it a success. Apple have to show it's possible, doable (and how) and make money for other devs to create big experiences only for iPhone.
 
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Tsaki

Member
I mean eventually, the endgame will be one small device that does everything, but it will take a while until we get there.


here's my future prediction for the next 30 years in this regard:

phones will get more and more powerful.

eventually we will stop calling them smartphones and a new term will be coined.

Microsoft and Apple will start pushing their full desktop OS onto these new devices that will replace both the PC and your phone, which will optimise their UI dynamically according to the current use case (being uses by hand or with a mouse and keyboard dock, or with a controller). this already kinda is a thing with many mobile devices.

Since hardware gets smaller, cheaper and more and more wide spread, consoles will eventually seize to exist.

everything will be one device that can be used in all the ways we currently use our PC, Console and Phone, and with the small and powerful hardware of the future there will be zero compromise as the hardware has long stopped being a limiting factor for game developers by that time.

this is the eventual endgame of personal productivity and entertainment hardware... it's just a matter of how long it will take to get there
Unless you use cloud for compute to compensate for the small SoCs, dedicated hardware for gaming like consoles and PC cannot be replaced, simply because bigger chip and power wattage equals more graphics.
 

Flutta

Banned
The thread quality is going down hill. We need a QA thread system where new threads need to be quality checked by mods before being allowed to be visable to the public.
 
Didn’t they already make more money from gaming than MS and Sony? I guess that they simply don’t bother. The return rates that they have must be really big.
 

Tams

Gold Member
Because other than mobile games, playing on a phone sucks. And those gamers tend to be very susceptible to microtransactions, so developers and platform holders (lovely 30% cut) just go for those money dispensers.
 
I think it'd be cool if we could hook phones (not necessarily iPhones) up to our TV then use a controller to play the games. so the phone itself is acting as the console.

Maybe that's what OP meant?

I don't think they'd ever replace consoles though. It's like Consoles vs PC. They have totally different power consumption and thermal limits. A mobile has to use a really low powered SoC and run off battery or a USB C cable.... with passive cooling in a very small tight space. Phones will never take the place of consoles just like consoles will never be able to offer the visuals or performance of a PC. Consoles can plug into the wall, have active cooling, and more powerful parts. PCs plug in the wall have significantly more cooling and much more power hungry parts.
 

Mattyp

Gold Member
I wouldn't buy an Apple product if it was the only thing available. I'd rather play an unpatched Assassin's Creed Unity on a base Xbox One than mess with overpriced Apple stuff.
Best chips in the industry, overpriced. What did he mean by this?



I get what Ops trying to say but we have the issue of larger boxes and cooling being able to far outstrip smaller ones for this time and a considerable time into the future.

In our lifetime but we’ll hit graphic levels of near life like, once we hit that point eventually phones will hit the point of being able to power those games. Graphics within 50 years will plateau, the power needed for those engines also plateaus, how do you sell boxes when there’s no graphical push for those boxes? You don’t.

In 50 years time plugging your phone in will become redundant as the tv or streaming will just run those games lag free regardless. None of us can predict so far into the future of when the graphical threshold will hit and what it will look like, but once we stop needing more GPU power we’ll stop needing boxes every few years.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
Nothing really but just like mobile devices are becoming more powerful. More powerful devices are getting smaller.

They are all moving towards each other and at some point will become one.

So it isnt that your phone will become the console it’s that everything will become the console. Your tv, your Amazon echo type device, your car. They will all run the same game service apps.

It’s literally what the cma is talking about when they say cloud future.
 
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Didn’t they already make more money from gaming than MS and Sony? I guess that they simply don’t bother. The return rates that they have must be really big.
Yeah they do but Apple is always looking to improve their revenue and profits. And they are trying to push into new areas because iPhone sales are not going to last forever. Apple has been growing their services and it has roughly doubled in the last 5 years. It is now their 2nd biggest source of revenue ($78 billion) behind iPhone. Apple is now involve in banking with credit card and savings. They are funding TV shows and Movie productions.

Apple don't need to release any gaming hardware right now or any time soon but as they keep bringing in more and more money they might think about investing more in the gaming market to the point they put out a console, fund game development, and attract developers/studios to release games on their platform. I wouldn't rule out Apple entering the gaming market. Like you say, they already make more money from it than MS/Sony so there is really nothing stopping them. Apple could release a console in time for next gen and they could do some serious damage to Microsoft or Sony. Microsoft is the only one who would stand a chance of spending the same kind of money that Apple could put into gaming.
 

T-Cake

Member
Funny thing I saw this morning - Hideo Kojima is going to be at Apple's WWDC event in a couple of weeks. Apparently, they are going "all in" on gaming presumably for their megabucks AR headset.
 
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Funny thing I saw this morning - Hideo Kojima is going to be at Apple's WWDC event in a couple of weeks. Apparently, they are going "all in" on gaming.
Isn't he working on a mobile game or some shit? I can't remember the name of it. Now I think of it maybe it was Microsoft he was working with?

If Kojima released an iOS exclusive game people would be eating that shit up even though they like to hate on mobile games.
 

Rickyiez

Member
You can have all the spec superiority but there is always thermal throttling. You can't bend physics.

It's like how rdna APU in handheld will never outperform the same chip in a laptop.
 

Drew1440

Member
Yes, It can run PS4 games for 5 seconds before it starts to thermal throttle. Precisely why I don't bother with high end phones for processor intensive tasks.
 
bandwith, form factor and the resulting max TDP as well as the battery.

Same issues all "handhelds" have.
 
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mcjmetroid

Member
In a perfect world, We should all be playing on Mobile devices. No actual reason why we shouldn't be. The concept of a Switch device should have happened years before it did.

But in reality, the mobile gaming market is a literal joke amongst serious gamers and has been nearly since it's inception. Even the most casual of console gamers know they suck ass.
 
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Ansphn

Member
Controllers and even if Apple made iPhones able to hook up to a Smart TV, they don't have the studios to make the games.
 

Robb

Gold Member
Well for one it doesn’t really matter if it’s stronger than a PS4 when it won’t be able to run its games for more than 5 minutes before going under.
 

Chastten

Banned
Apple isn't a gaming company, yet makes more money from gaming than either Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft. They don't care about the 20 million or so units a triple A game will sell, when they make 10 times that on microtransactions in time wasters.

As long as casual games make much more money and profit than triple A games, Apple is more than happy to just rake in that cash without ever feeling the need to spend big mountains of cash on high quality stuff.
 

ScHlAuChi

Member
What is preventing AAA games from releasing on iPhone or even Android phones?
Physics!
Have you ever wondered why consoles are big spacious plastic boxes?
All the heat the CPU/GPU generates needs to go somewhere, unless you want to hold a glowing hot brick and burn your hands!
 

01011001

Banned
Unless you use cloud for compute to compensate for the small SoCs, dedicated hardware for gaming like consoles and PC cannot be replaced, simply because bigger chip and power wattage equals more graphics.

game studios already hit a manpower limit and can barely fully utilize modern hardware.

this will only get "worse".
soon CPUs and GPUs will be so powerful that not a single dev team in the world could make a game so ambitious that it truly saturate them.

so that day will come eventually. maybe it's already here in a way, I mean imagine a dev team trying to actually fully utilise the possibilities of an RTX4090... meaning a game that targets 1440p60fps on a GPU like it and uses the full horsepower for fidelity and complexity...

and after that, hardware like it will slowly shrink, until it eventually is small and efficient enough to fit into a phone sized device.

and when that day has arrived there will be zero need for any other personal computing device anymore.


btw. this is also why IMO cloud streaming has no future, because cloud streaming is currently only even viable because mobile hardware can not natively play high end AAA games.
once mobile hardware is too powerful to fully get saturated by developers, cloud gaming will become utterly useless.
and for cloud gaming that day will come even sooner, because a small mobile device doesn't need the exact same fidelity as a home console, as long as it plays all AAA games it's good enough.
 

DryvBy

Member
Best chips in the industry, overpriced. What did he mean by this?



I get what Ops trying to say but we have the issue of larger boxes and cooling being able to far outstrip smaller ones for this time and a considerable time into the future.

In our lifetime but we’ll hit graphic levels of near life like, once we hit that point eventually phones will hit the point of being able to power those games. Graphics within 50 years will plateau, the power needed for those engines also plateaus, how do you sell boxes when there’s no graphical push for those boxes? You don’t.

In 50 years time plugging your phone in will become redundant as the tv or streaming will just run those games lag free regardless. None of us can predict so far into the future of when the graphical threshold will hit and what it will look like, but once we stop needing more GPU power we’ll stop needing boxes every few years.
No one but Apple people like Apple. They suck. That's what I meant.
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Are you fucking kidding me? Ok, everything is possible. But if that happens I'll leave gaming. Will find something else to do.
 

BootsLoader

Banned
My thoughts are:

iPhone is not a good device for AAA gaming. It will ruin the phone and battery life (because of high temperature). Also, carrying a controller with me to game on my phone? No. Nintendo does this much better.
Also, imagine playing god of war on iPhone, how long do you thing you can play until the battery dies? iPhone and other smartphones are designed for fast gaming (small bursts when you are bored). They are time killers when it comes ti gaming.

On the other hand, Apple could add M2 chip or M1 Max chip on Apple TV. This could work as a console but the cost will significantly go up. That’s why Apple TVs are always “outdated” in comparison with iPhone and iPad chips. To keep the costs down. But again, I’m not sure if M2 or M1 Max / Pro chips can handle todays triple A games. Those chips are very good for applications and video editing etc. But I don’t know if they’re good for gaming at all.
 

Trunx81

Member
What is stopping me from using my iPhone as a console?

  • I got two streaming possibilities to play on my phone: Amazon Luna and Remote Play from my PS4. Both things I´m not really using, even if I connect my PS4 controller via bluetooth. Reason is wifi, even with my 500mbit line it struggles (and my base PS4 is 2.4ghz only)
  • My first iphone was the one from 2007, so I lived through the first games (even before the appstore), bought Super Monkey Ball and even lived through the BioShock desaster. I tried. I really, really tried. I played through the iOS version of Max Payne (in easy mode, otherwise it was nearly impossible) with touch controlls. I had GTA installed, but only finished Chinatown Wars. Played through KOTOR and Baldur´s Gate, because RPGs are easiert to manage with touch. But do you know what the only two games are that I play today? Fire Emblem Heroes and Solitair+
  • Apple Arcade is a mess. Lots and lots of games looking the same, lackluster attempts of Freemium games with the pay2win mechanic removed. Console-conversions that run great, but play horrible with touch. Slightly better with a controller, but then I have to charge two devices. And it´s just not practical while traveling.
  • Battery was already mentioned. My phones battery is slighty above 80% of its capacity now, but even with 100% it ran out of fuel quite often during the day. Messaging, Youtube, calls, navigation, payments - everything sucks energy like crazy and (this is just my impression, so take it with a grain of salt, like every opinion here) it feels like battery life is getting worse every generation and iOS update. A powerbank is my new best friend.
I know what you mean, OP: Smartphones ARE amazing little computers in our pockets. My iPhone is smarter and faster than the laptop I´m currently writing this post on. But I rather play on dedicated hardware, with AAA games from exclusive developers (right now I´m LTTP with Horizon - Zero Dawn and loving every second of it) than to a) use up my precious battery life on my phone and b) fumble around with an additional controller or, even worse, with touch controls.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Have we ever heard a rumour on a controller? That would be key. I could see a future where we dock our iPhone and then it turns into a console and then we grab it and dash When we leave.

ms tried this with their phones a little while ago but the software and hardware just wasn’t there yet.
 
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