Develop 2010: Fishlabs CEO predicts big things for the mobile games industry
Fishlabs CEO Michael Schade has stated his belief that "iPad HD" will be released and running games at at least an equivalent standard to the Xbox 360 within a year.
Talking during a session entitled “Mobile becomes Console” – itself named after a recent Mark Rein comment about mobile gaming’s future – at the Develop Conference in Brighton, Schade was very confident about the potential for mobile gaming to match and overtake console gaming standards within that time.
“I think you can expect some time next year to have rendering capabilities on mobile devices superior to the Xbox 360,” Schade said.
“And I believe by the end of the year the ‘iDevices’ could have sold 120m copies, which puts them close to a par with the PS2’s 140m.”
Schade also had a clear vision for the future of mobile gaming as he was hoping to see it.
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“When we have made it so that someone buys a mobile device to play a game, then the mobile has become a more important platform than consoles,” he enthused.
Later, when questioned about UI interfaces and screen size issues for mobile gamers in comparison to console gamers, he replied that he believed if you can watch Hollywood films on a TV screen without jeopardising quality, the same could be true of video games on iPhone and iPad.
By unit shipments? Michael is on the money.
Out gun consoles on performance? Apple will need something much meatier than ARM based CPUs and PowerVR SGX GPU's.
iPad is already HD... 720p
Dumbasses don't do research?
Let me give you 3 reasons why Mobile gaming won't surpass Consoles:
1. Market fragmentation with tons of manufacturers and models making it very hard to get to them all.
2. Not enough horse power for serious gaming in any actual platform (the ones that will be used by the end of year games)
3. Not dedicated gaming networks to allow a gaming community to grow the way they actually do in consoles
I don't say we can't see specific successes with some games on specific platforms (most probably apple's) but not in a thousand yards of distance of console gaming...
By iDevices, he likely means everything that Apple has made with an i in front of it meaning all the way back to the original iPod and maybe even iMac computers.
Let's be honest, most everyone cuaght up in the iPod trend buys new iPod's as they come out. Some have at least 1 of every variant. So like the 360 sales, the number in use is nowhere close to sales (due to technical issues, many have had to buy 3 or 4 extra 360's, sometimes even more).
It will take more than just 1 year to match the current-gen graphics on a handheld, and but that time console power will render portable rendering obsolete. Handhelds never have been up to par with consoles and they never will.
There's no way mobile gaming will beat out consoles, at least not in the next ten years anyway. Here's just a few of the many reasons why.
1) To run 360/PS3 quality games, you need a lot of power, which means short battery life.
2) A good mobile gaming device is small, like the 3DS or PSP. An iPad is NOT really that mobile. You're definitely not carrying it around in your pocket for quick gaming sessions.
3) No one wants to play games on a touch screen! Your hands just get in the way.
He actually means iPhones, iPod TOUCHES, and iPads only. That is what an iDevice is and at the time of the iPhone 4 reveal in June there were 80 million iDevices sold. Then the iPhone has sold over 2 million by now, iPad sells 1 million a month, and a new iPod Touch will be revealed this fall boosting sales. His projection of 120 million iDevices may not be that far off, and you are an ignorant moron for ranting about something you don't even know about.
“I think you can expect some time next year to have rendering capabilities on mobile devices superior to the Xbox 360,” Schade said.
I think that this is probably the least likely of the comments made here, but what would the cost to battery life, cost to my pocket, and size of device, if that was the case?
Mobile has been "about to surpass everyone's expectations" for about 8 years now so I think the enthusiasm is good, but misplaced, just as wearing special glasses to watch a 3D telly is NOT going to enjoy a large audience up take, then mobile gaming will also enjoy a smaller audience than described.
Mass market gaming is already here, and enjoyed by more everyday. 120 million is not a big number for iDevices either, and will certainly include iPad users - which I think will become more the norm. Other similar devices are on their way, but they will only water down the ability of developers to generate triple A games and standardise on a development platform capable of displaying such.
