iPad as route to more Mac games?

With the push for gaming on the Touch/iPhone and now IPad, Mac gamers could see a resurgence in the game market. The iPad is the critical link to make it happen, beacuse of it's increased screen size. Gaming on a small screen phone is different than on a larger device - better graphics, more involved game play and features will be expected on a device whose screen is roughly equivalent to a small laptop. As games evolve and become more complex, it's a natural progression to move them to desktops and laptops - the detail and game play is there, keyboards open up new capabilities - and companies expand the customer base with the potential for greater revenue and profits.

Of course, there is the slight issue of OS compatibility - but that can be solved with a decent simulator; one is already available as pat of the SDK - it could be expanded to create a delivery mechanism for iPad games, and the iPad OS could eventually encompass Mac capabilities such as screen resolution as well.

Apple would open up a new market for games via iTunes as a distribution model based on the existing one.

Not saying it will happen, but I find it an intriguing possibility.

miles01110 said:

iPad games ≠ Mac Games. The iPad is a tablet, Macs are computers.

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Well, if you look at some of the games on the iPhone they are pretty indistinguishable from Mac games. As for tablet vs computer I'd say the line is pretty fuzzy.

MikhailT said:

First one is correct, second one is wrong. Tablets are computers by every definition, just as laptops are computers. The only difference is the form of it. The second comparison should be that iPad is a multi-touch OS whereas the Mac is the desktop OS with keyboard/mouse interaction. It's two different ways of developing games that does not encourage one to develop for the other. You can't port iPad games directly to Macs and expect it to work.

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While I agree with you in general; a number of games attempt to replicate the mouse / keys paradigm via tilt or on screen swipes and on screen buttons. Look at it from the reverse - games original came out for PCs and consoles and developers revamped interfaces to keep the same gameplay but on a tilt / touch device. I think going back to the old input paradigm would not be taht big of a jump; and results in the best of both worlds.


*IF* (and that's a big if) Apple would decide to go this route they could design the OSX iPad "translator" to accept equivalent mouse / keypad input to replace tilt / touch. I think consistency of interface would be important; so different games behave in the same way to inputs.

As long as Apple continues with the crappy graphic cards in their computers, the gaming may not take off like people think it would. We barely have OpenGL 3.x support in Snow Leopard.

Although Valve's Steam is more of a catalyst than the iPad. If they do port the Source and Steamworks engine to Mac OS, expect that as a major game changer for the Macs.

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True; though I think the real need is for very fast graphics rendition rather than more color depth and pixels for most games.