Apple Tablet set to revolutionise gaming?

Apple is inviting leading videogame journalists in the US to its tablet announcement launch event in San Francisco on 27 January, reports TechRadar

[zoydwheeler]

Combine Wii Fit with a big Apple iPhone - surely that must work?

[gusto]

Yup, it needs a hula hoop game. And more YouTube videos as a result.

[Tempist]

Of course it's going to work because you know, the iPhone and iTouch have created this massive revolution in gaming as we know it. I mean where would we be without the umpteen variants of the same game.

Tablets didn't take off in the past for a reason, and that's because they lack a good/multifaced input method. Apple isn't going to change this fact just because it has the Apple logo on it.

[koehler83]

Has Apple ever revolutionized gaming? As an iPhone proponent, I confidently say: "No."

The biggest impact Apple has ever had on gaming was letting Bungie and Halo slip away to Microsoft.

[zoydwheeler]

Witness the App Store. Witness Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo all following suit.

To say it hasn't changed gaming is just blinkered and ignoring the facts.

[koehler83]

The App Store, which opened in July 2008? Preceded by almost 2 years by PSN and over 3 years by XBLM?

Yes.. indeed.

[n4gn4gn4gn4g]

Witness Pippen!

[thereapersson]

ZoydWheeler speaks like a true Apple zealot. Their behavior is easy to spot, after all....

[madjedi]

@2.1 So apple offering iphone users the opportunity to download countless applications, not games has to you revolutionised gaming, out of those 3 billion apps how many are actually games, and out of those games how many aren't garbage?

I think your mixing up changing and evolving with revolutionary, i would consider thought controlled games and a technology similar to the holodeck truly revolutionary for gaming. Compared to a stupid application that tells you the current time in every timezone across the world.

Or an app that lets you share instantly with the world, stupid pointless information about yourself such as, i got a haircut, i walked the dog, i saw the movie avatar, i had cheerio's for breakfast and anything else idiots will talk about on facebook.

[zoydwheeler]

Is totally different to what PSN and XBLN were about. It has caused Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo to take note and follow suit - delivering quick and cheap and cheerful casual/retro games.

The fact Apple has delivered over THREE BILLION apps in such a short amount of time and has, to use a financial term, CREAMED IT, is why the console companies are changing their online and mobile strategies.

[n4gn4gn4gn4g]

every minute.

[koehler83]

That argument doesn't take into consideration the amount of Apps downloaded which have absolutely nothing to do with gaming, or were free. So you might as well try and tell people that Newgrounds or Facebook has revolutionized gaming.

I was downloading content directly to my PSP via the PS Store before the iPhone existed. Obviously the App Store is better, being available anywhere over 3G (if you HAVE 3G), but that's almost a moot point considering the 10MB data cap over 3G. If the iPhone/iTouch included unlimited 3G like the Kindle or Blackberry Network I'd say that's something revolutionary. (Other than the fact that Kindle and Blackberry have already done it.)

At best, the App Store has proven to be a place where small devs can monetize games that are free elsewhere. At worst, the App Store is a last ditch effort handheld market for games that have failed everywhere else, like GTA: Chinatown Wars apparently. Somewhere between those two ends of the spectrum you found a mound of derivative and repetitive crap that would make the Wii cringe.

[thereapersson]

How is a downloadable games model different than what Microsoft and Sony were offering years prior?

You can't even compare phone games to console games because the applications for the software and the control methods are completely different. Even full-blown mobile games pale in comparison to many console, or even other hand held games.

PC's have been doing the "lite" games for years, BTW, so Apple revolutionized nothing that hasn't been done already on a much grander scale.

Now, did they revolutionize mobile phone applications and what could be done through a hand-held mobile infrastructure? To that, I can say "yes".

[MK_Red]

If Apple is really gonne get into gaming, which area would be more likely? PC (vs Steam?), Home Console or Portale Console?

[BYE]

They could update the Apple TV to support gaming and deliever games via iTunes Store, like with the iPhone. This is actually what is rumored among Apple geeks.

PC is unlikely and portable they already have.

[zoydwheeler]

I think you have just hit it on the head there. They [Apple] may well launch a Steam for Idiots type service - allowing tablet users to download AAA-games via that. Though if they did take that route, it would still have to be an offshoot off the App Store... I cannot see them launching an entirely new online distribution network...

Either way, we live in interesting times... and FTR I'm a NOT an Apple or Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo fanboy, just interested in tech and games.

[beardpapa]

OLED + glass screen + no physical keyboard + >$700 + no WWAN 3g/4g connection of some sorts = fail

and AFAIK, the product isn't geared towards gaming. I read several gadget sites and they've been mentioning about getting invited to the conference, so I would say video game journalists that got invited were just a select few and not representative that this device is solely designed as a gaming device.

[zoydwheeler]

But it has not stopped it selling trillions of games. Mainly cack, admittedly, but with stuff like Monkey Ball and GTA and The Sims on there the games industry is taking serious notes. Whatever new device this tablet turns out to be WILL play games - and it WILL appeal to the major players.

I wait with baited breath to see what EA Mobile and Sega's mobile division announce next month...

[Venatus-Deus]

@ Zod

You “wait with baited breath”? Really????

Your one of those people who will buy a t-shirt for $200 because it has Armani on the tag.

[Capt CHAOS]

will be the ego's of the people who can afford it and claim it's the best thing since sliced bread.

Apple: Give me the ability to re-size my frigin windows from any corner/edge and not just the bottom right.. sheesh..

(btw. However, I chose MacOS over windoze).

[Raider69]

Console market?What if they get to begin the next generation of consoles?Lets not forget that MS strategy of releasing the 360 first,have give them advantage over the PS3 and SONY!SONY is begin to win the market again now,but they are forgeting that this generation is at the end..has sone MS or maybe Apple put a new machine on the market the new generation will begin and if Sony and MS ( If Apple get this done ) dont want to lose the train they must release also new hardware,PS4 and 720.All Apple needs to have a Winner situation is to release a console that haves superior hardware that does of the PS3 and 360,and get major support from top developers!Of course they must be prepare to lose some money at first because the price tag must be suitable to todays market also.

[Baka-akaB]

Some people need to get over their disdain for Apple and belief that it's bought like a deluxe clothing line . in some work environnement , you dont have time to waste being offended at Apple's prices , or being defensive of pc because mwahaha the macs got no games . You make due with what sounds and looks more efficient to you .

I personally dont care much for the tablet's gaming properties , especially for games that will most likely sucks , like pretty much anything non emu on my iphones .

My interest here is if it's a genuine big sized tablet with a good interface , for work related purpose , but to be honest when at home , most of all so i could use a good and thin screen to read manga and comic scans .

I'm sad to say that most other tablet pc so far sucked hard , partly because of the bloody awful windows (xp and vista) tablet OS and interfaces . It was expensive , bloated and slow , and with dubious touch quality most of the time . The time and confort of use you were supposed to gain compared to a laptop was lost into oblivion .
The only other solution were e-readers in A4 format , but expensive as well , and mostly created for text and black and white .

I just hope for at last a sizeable and practical tablet , and i'm confident that Apple can deliver that . remains the question of the price of course .

As for the whole revolution thing ... dont care either . All i know is that before the iphone , tactil smartphones and pdas (again some of you may think it was futile , but at work and at leisure time , i have to time to waste figuring out how to use tiny little keyboards and sms styled messaging , plus i needed to draw some suff , quickly and efficiently, again for work) were a pain no matter how many i tried . And when finally good ones came , like the Qtek brand back then , it was nerfed by their use of yet again a crappy windows os : windows mobile .

The iphone was easily the only good and best tactil smartphone of the market back then . And still remains it , unless you need more functions . At least now alternative appeared such as the Android , and we shall see the worth of such competition .

[washingmachine]

sorry but touch gaming isnt a revolution and never will be,it will co exist along the controller gaming aswell. anyway,this thing wont have that powerful of graphics to run todays games unless you want to trun off effects etc. we will just have to wait and see

[Akagi]

No.