Did Apple Lie About AAA iPhone Games?

[@lenn55]

Apple keeps announcing every year that now they are serious about bringing AAA gaming to the Mac. And every year we get 1 or 2, usually old games released and that's it. Apple refuses to spend any of the 100+ billion dollars in cash they have to really bring AAA gaming to the Mac. They do it on the cheap and release a few tools, software updates and then tell game developers it's all up to them now. Unlike MS and Sony that pour 100s of millions and even billions into developing games every single year. Until Apple does something similar things will never change.

[@francoistroudbal402]

well fecesbook did just that to aggressively make VR more of a viable option for entertainment. didnt work. Apple is very slowly trying to adapt to the gaming environment, i dont think its a bad thing. being risky aint boring but thats not apple today i guess.

[@Axeiaa]

@@francoistroudbal402 Apple doesn't need to sell some weird devices that gives people headaches or causes them to throw up though. And well.. they're not Facebook that might try to write some off their metaverse failure off on other things. They could take the Apple TV approach and just make sure the resources they stick in it are high quality so that people actually want it, it doesn't have the wide array of options like other streaming services but what they do have seems to be better written and better executed (only HBO seems to do the same whilst Netflix/Disney produce a lot of lesser quality and Amazon... I don't know, they're just sinking money into mediocre things). If they can buy their way into getting the top 2% of games onto their devices the rest might just follow on their own accord.

[@user-bc7cb8uu7e]

Game porting toolkit is a pretty huge investment. They could definitely do more, but it's not like they aren't trying at all

[@lenn55]

@@user-bc7cb8uu7e not in comparison to all the money and support MS gives game developers. It's a drop in the bucket.

[@user-bc7cb8uu7e]

@@lenn55 Definitely agree that they could do more, but I'm sure a lot of investment was put in to make that toolkit work. I also think return on investment is potentially better building the toolkit then helping a few developers. I'm not trying to say they shouldn't do more, but I also think that the amount of work that goes into something like this is much larger than people give it credit for

[@ninjamaster3453]

First AAA gaming on ios I experienced was gta vice city back in 2012.

[@sriramsundar8388]

2011 with GTA 3.

[@snazzy]

I remembered these ports when making the video, but from a visual-fidelity standpoint, the Bioshock port was so impressive as it was a current-generation console game.

[@sriramsundar8388]

@@snazzy yeah I understood where you came from while watching the video, but because this person said GTA vice city, I had to say GTA 3, as the mobile port of GTA 3 preceded vice city.

[@TheEviltaco666]

COD zombies back in 2012 on the iPod touch God those were the days

[@high-captain-BaLrog]

San Andreas in 2014 on galaxy s5 was sublime

[@ManuelKoegler]

I like how as I was typing we reached the same conclusion. If mobile gamers are disinterested to pay triple A prices for triple A games, then maybe offering a premium tier of Apple Arcade with access to these high budget titles might be the way to incentivize growing in this sector.

[@imkletos]

yep like Xbox’s gamepass for base level games, and ultimate for more premium games like triple A status. i’d be way more inclined to pay that than full price for games on iOS

[@medleysa]

There are some gems in Apple Arcade. Stardew Valley, Sneaky Sasquatch, Fantasian, and Ocean Horn 2 are all really fun and worth the cost of an annual subscription IMO. The big problem with AAA games on mobile is the controls. No one wants to lug around an external controller, and the hassle of setting that up eliminates the convenience factor. You might as well buy a compact handheld PC for the cost and convenience, and get the power with it.

[@somedude5353]

Far from AAA

[@DespyBlitz]

There’s a lot more than that on Apple Arcade - Fantasian, Sonic, Gear Club etc

[@4000marcdman]

Foldable display fixes this. Half the screen for the game, half the screen for an on screen controller.

[@genexis_]

@@4000marcdman Only for slow paced games that does not need accurate/precise and quick actions like turn based and strategy games. Nothing will come close to real buttons when u try to play action games. Responsive touch based controls are a marvel and highly appreciated when it was created but they are just never good 'enough' for all forms of gaming

[@homeoffice3524]

Idk. I never bothered with controllers. I finished Village on iPhone with controllers what was offered on screen. You can customise it. Make capacity down and put buttons where you want. It was ok. People just want complain to much 😂

[@Crusader1089]

I really think that Apple needs to develop a switch like first party dock and controller mount. The power of the iPhone is insane but no one is going to take advantage of it while the gaming experience is pure jank. It needs the apple touch of integrating hardware with software. Otherwise we are only going to get shinier idle clickers on iphone.

[@sleeptodreamx]

Yesss. They NEED this to be taken seriously. My guess though is they’re going to say “good enough” for the iPhone, and really invest into gaming for the Vision Pro

[@impersonator4439]

With inbuilt cooling systems. Also I would like the Apple TV to become a real console. That would be awesome.

[@TamasKiss-yk4st]

They need to break in to this territory first, and with new console it's hard, as most people will not leave the old console with multiple games for a empty store on new account. But they have 1,5 billion active iPhone users, whi spend about yearly $270 billion (based on the App store yearly renevue, what comes from the 30% cut off from the price). So compared to Steam store they alresdy have 12x more user (Steam has 120million) and 10x yearly renevue (Steam had $8billion /in 2022/ witch is about $27 billion spent money in the store with the also 30% cut off). They only can win against those who are already on this field, if they can gives you more numbers (in both user amount and in spent money by thise users), after the developers start to port their games on Apple device, they can release a new console/hand held, but with empty store, it's no reason, who would leave 100PS games account behind because of an empty store?

[@blaiddfumbler]

@@TamasKiss-yk4stI mean they technically did with iPad Pro m1. You can use an external monitor with your iPad and the external screen will act as a second screen rather than a projection of the iPad screen. And with the introduction of usb c to iPhone 15, it’s certainly possible this could happen.

[@jadeng1147]

Couldn't agree more, as another Steam deck owner (also an LE!) I was amazed at running GTA4 at 90 FPS, the handheld gaming is just so much better than what any phone could offer for now. Though with that said, for more game developers to harness the GPT it would be interesting to see if any shift happens.

[@LogicLegionnaire]

Let it evolve and develop further. It’s just the first step by Apple, I’m sure by the time we have iPhone 17-18 these games will run absolutely perfectly

[@orion260]

No. It will always run like this crap in terms of fps and resolution if they keep trying to release fairly new pc and console titles on phones. If the phones will be getting powerful every year so does the game titles which gets more demanding each year

[@darkcodemonkey4217]

One thing both ios and android have issues with is apps no longer maintaining support for the os, as brought up with the Bioshock situation. Granted that was an extreme case, but there are plenty of apps that are just inaccessible and unable to run on any modern device. Where as with PC, (not sure what the situation is on mac) I can go back 20-30 years or older and play games or run those applications outside of a VERY small handful that are usually due to some sort of DRM setup or something weird. Where as on android or ios, there are a lot of apps that are not even 10 years old, that just wont run due to incompatibility. That would be my concern with any type of big purchase mobile gaming. Guarantee backwards compatibility, and I might be sold.

[@shre6619]

Yeah, even angry birds creators, rovio, removed the classic game

[@Discount-Stonks]

Exactly, I have Max Payne 3 on Steam that I used to be able to play on my iMac with little issue… that was until Catalina when they removed 32-bit support and so I can only play on Windows now.

[@ΒύρωναςΛαδιάς]

@@shre6619It’s still there. It was renamed to Red’s First Flight

[@HUGO-xo2mv]

Roller coaster tycoon 3 is such an example. I loved to play it, but it became incompatible with iOS10 or so and now there is a trash f2p game in exchange there

[@yeshwantkethineni3694]

Obligatory Infinity Blade 1/2/3 mention (and if you try the 60fps version...) I don't think you should need a controller, many good games were made 10 years ago with touch controls

[@3monsterbeast]

Infinity Blade was my shiii a decade ago! I remember being a kid on my iPad feeling like I was playing a high-end game

[@crestofhonor2349]

I think a controller is great. Having to use just the touch screen is limiting even though great games like Infinity blade exist

[@toonfoxart]

It wasn't a console port but man I miss Infinity Blade 2

[@njgaming3322]

Remember when Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Mirage for iOS? Yea that never happened yet

[@noahalmeida2658]

It released today 😂

[@sansundertale5274]

aged like milk

[@drewpatterson8009]

You're missing the most important part, this is the 1st gen of PC AAA gaming on a phone. Apple always makes its next iteration infinitely better. iPhone 16 Pro is going to be an absolute gaming beast.

[@ericbauer4559]

Yeah I gave up on gaming on Mac and iPhone years ago, even though Im a die hard apple guy and I have a 15PM and Mac Studio. I still much prefer my gaming pc and ROG Ally for gaming. I agree, I wouldn't spend AAA games prices on Mac/iPhone games.

[@redxblood85]

If Apple announced today that they are taking it seriously and made big moves, I'd jump back in really quick. It's all commitment from Apple though. Until they actually show they take it seriously I would never consider it. Heck, I would leave android for iPhone if apple took gaming seriously.

[@crestofhonor2349]

I would spend money on AAA games on iOS over the vast majority of freemium garbage currently plaguing the iOS store. But I do prefer to play on my gaming PC and Steam Deck

[@high-captain-BaLrog]

What weird @ss military time are you on guy?!

[@spencerb8149]

So, pull an Epic Games move? Epic is still operating the game store at a loss, 5 years later. I’m not so sure Apple would be brazen enough to try this strategy.

[@helloukw]

I like where the industry is heading. I'm not much of a traveler, but knowing that there's a move forward towards gaming on an iPhone is nice to hear. I used to play amazing games on iPhone back in the days of 3GS like Samurai II and it was amazing. Now having AAA games on iPhone, wow. That's another reason to upgrade to a PRO. Sure, the price is high, but its nice to have the alternative of gaming while traveling light or in holidays. I know I can't get my desktop PC with me.

[@AsielFlores]

I play this game at home with a usb-c to HDMI cable and a wireless controller. It works surprisingly well and because the phone is only being used to send the video to the TV it’s surprisingly battery efficient. Sure it’s doing all the processing but thanks to it not having to use the screen for controls/display and the speakers for sound it lasts for quite a while. I genuinely did not expect that.

[@ΒύρωναςΛαδιάς]

@@AsielFloreswait so the phone’s screen doesn’t display it when using this?

[@AsielFlores]

@@ΒύρωναςΛαδιάς it does. I just prefer to watch it on the big screen. Gaming on small screens gives me a headache after a while.

[@impersonator4439]

Gaming on phones is trash even if it's impressive. Why would you ever play AAA on a phone? The screen is too small and using up your phone's battery for gaming is so bad. So I play my AAA game, and the phone gets all hot, and then I get a call? Should I then remove the controller, answer the call with the phone being hot, then refit the controller after the call? Nah. Playing with touch controls is trash as well, especially on such a small screen. Having a dedicated device for gaming is far superior.

[@andreoliver4449]

The big trouble I see with gaming with apple is the lack of maintaining older catalog. Square enix ported "the world ends with you" to the iPad. When I bought my ipad with apple pencil I was excited to play but couldn't find it on the app store. Just outright depressing.

[@Grishanof]

Meanwhile Dead Space port for android 4 still runs on modern devices 10 years later with barely any patches

[@lucasLSD]

@@Grishanof But every CAVE game stopped working, mobile premium sucks everywhere.

[@Grishanof]

​@@lucasLSD hence the patches. KOTOR needed fixes too, but .apk format at least allows to dig in and fix the compatibility

[@JoshuaVarghese]

Infinity Blade was not, “just a tech demo.” It was a *masterpiece*

[@VictorIbelles]

Maybe it isn’t amazing, but dead space on iOS was the first time I felt like I was playing a console game on mobile , sadly got discontinued on iOS 9

[@mppourazizian814]

Try dead effect 2

[@Im_Behind_You]

My pet peeve is tech bloggers calling aliasing anti-aliasing, when they quite literally meant the opposite

[@snazzy]

Freudian slip

[@user-dp9pm5vv8j]

⁠​⁠@@snazzyFor what it’s worth Quinn , you said it correctly “incredibly bad anti-aliasing”; that’s the correct grammar. Aliased would actually be the wrong term to use.

[@andrewzasidko6595]

I think the biggest problem with the concept of iPhone AAA gaming (iOS/iPadOS in reality) is that you are investing into a platform, not a gaming device. With Steam Deck, or any other handheld consoles, or a Mac - you just log into your existing libraries and play the games you own. With an iPhone, in addition to a full price tag for a sub-par gaming experience, you invest into a platform and get locked into it. I cant wrap my head around the fact that you'll pay 70$ for a game to never be able to play it outside of the latest A/M CPUs scope. Granted, you are probably never going to be blocked from the content you paid because you won't ever live without an iPhone at your disposal, you'll usually upgrade it and you can't live without a smartphone in a modern world.

[@Jwatchdizzledrip3003]

Written January 12, 2024 Updating a game on mobile to work with the current OS of smartphones is in my understanding the same as updating the game for console as for many games on consoles, you are only restricted into paying that can on the specific eras of consoles or even exclusive games to one particular console. I think the problem with mobile gaming is that it should adopt a system of enjoyment similar to consoles where you have a console that lasts for 7-8 years before a new one shows up, giving time for a plethora of new games to be released on that current console. But mobile is not a gaming console, meaning they do not need daily triple A games to survive as its sole purpose so perhaps that is why both iOS and Android seem to only have a few consoles games from each console era from ps1-ps5 as mobile can still survive even without games like a PC I’d say even without daily games, iOS has demonstrated throughout the years to be able to play some taxing triple A games in graphics similar to the big powered consoles even on low graphics

[@samfarabee2963]

The problem with iPhone gaming is not the chipset they put in their devices ... Did you say it crashed when it exceeded 6GB of RAM?! Apple gimps it's own hardware by not offering sufficient RAM ... Among other things. Great chipset, overpriced, underperforming devices ... It's sad they're still in business. They know what you want/need ... They think you're stupid.

[@Jae87217]

Mines doesn’t crash

[@SpookySkeletonGang]

Apple needs to stop trying to act like the gaming industry is just going to bow to their demands, and actually support some damn standards! Work with valve to make a mac version of proton, start supporting vulkan, literally anything. Apple does not have the gaming market share to demand ports even with their little porting toolkit. Get the marketshare, then start making demands if you want.

[@Jaxv3r]

Game porting toolkit is just proton but Apple just took the full credit.

[@hubris04]

😂 I wrote a comment on video about how the Ipad pro m1 can play Death Stranding . And I said is useless and stupid to pay 1500$ for a ipad if you have Gaming in mind and you can buy a Asus ally and steam deck instead. You have no idea how many Apple sheep mentality people came to tell me that I am wrong and telling me Asus ally and Steam deck are just some toys and can do nothing else outside of gaming ,but if this are just some toys ,a Apple product is trash in the gaming industry.

[@LostinaMemory]

There’s been sooo many AAA games on iPhone for over a decade like the GTA games, Street Fighter, etc

[@YasinHasan]

remember when all the iSheeps said M1 gonna destroy PC market? & i said it wont even make a dent in PC market? well same case here. AAA playable apple phones wont be able to do shit about gaming market. things only changes when android or windows does it.

[@NathanMillerVisuals]

I believe that with love and care of optimizing these games for iOS it will succeed. I believe the next WWDC we might see Minecraft with a light form raytracing and No Mans Sky. I would actually really like to see rocket league try to come over to. No Mans Sky and Rocket League are my go to Steam Deck games.

[@plutack]

No man's sky wqs suppose to appear late last year yet here we are.

[@vlad165]

What exactly are “love” and “care” in our capitalistic world? Companies care only about money, so if there is no profit no one will optimize/port their AAA titles for iPhone. Especially considering crazy % that developers have to pay from their sales in the App Store. DS and RE are the ones that were ported in direct collaboration with Apple, but I doubt we will see any other AAA soon, or ever. Unfortunately.

[@L3XIE]

Epic owns rocket league now so I doubt it

[@NathanMillerVisuals]

@@vlad165 in terms of those people who are so talented and are very driven that want to develop amazing games. There are passionate artists that work on these that are cut short by the production companies.

[@noreworks]

Sadly I really doubt there's love and care, only greed

[@star_man]

AAA games on an iDevice: Give it 4 years and after numerous IOS updates that breaks the game each time requiring the developers to patch the game it doesn't become financially viable for the developer to support the game any more and suddenly you can't play the AAA game that you "bought" for your device. I've lost count of all the games that I can no longer play. Whereas on PC you have compatibility mode and can install complementary programs and utilities (like DOSBox) to allow you to play your games for literally decades.

[@crestofhonor2349]

iOS breaking things has been an issue for so long. Some games have been immune but so many get broken because of Apple

[@glujaz]

Can confirm... Deus Ex, Rayman Run... Deus Ex, which we actually never got the ending by the way...

[@adaml.5355]

A game that nobody wants to play running at 20 FPS while taking 1/4 of the storage of a $1000 phone. Yes! Sign me up! Apple invented the next game console.

[@godminnette2]

Idk if I'd say nobody wants to play RE4R; it had hit 5.5 million sales in June, and I wouldn't be surprised if it passes 10m after the holidays. It just launched in a year with a lot of insanely good games.

[@EbikeAdventuresSD]

Get more storage, then broke boy. I always get the one terabyte.

[@snazzy]

Oh, yes, because this one specific game is indicative of the entire future of gaming on iPhone. 🤦‍♂️ Watch the bloody video.

[@starmanxvi]

It's 31GB lmao, if you're buying an iPhone 15 Pro there is no reason you should be getting the 128GB version, in two years that's gonna be the new 64GB spec, You're almost helping the planned obsolescence by doing that.

[@nandor690]

Nobody? You fool. Ever played it in vr. Awesome game

[@thedragon4453]

I would definitely like to see more AAA titles on the iPhone, but the thing that I think of to compare it to isn't a PS4/5/xbox, it's the Switch. There is no way any iPhone in the last couple of years can't perform better than the Switch, and I think until Apple is ready to spend an objectively absurd amount of time/money on talent and getting someone to make their Breath of the Wild, gaming probably won't go much further on iOS.

[@sleeptodreamx]

Maybe they’ll make a push for it on the Vision Pro, I’d love to see that

[@fliko6808]

What are you talking about? Switch has a mobile chip from 2017, Android can already run a lot of switch games through emulation at a higher frame rate and image quality. speaking of emulation, what about PC emulator on android? that can basically run GTA 5 at 40fps at 1080p on a galaxy S23 Ultra, imagine this running native on an Iphone.

[@marcustmusic]

This makes me curious how Apple will treat gaming on the Vision Pro with even less market saturation? If a AAA game on iPhone is a hard pitch for Apple and the market hasn't shifted away from free-to-play in the last 15 years, how would gaming look like on the Vision Pro with less users? My prediction is that Vision Pro won't be any better at gaming (in terms of the market) than the Mac or iPhone and Meta will still dominate the VR/AR gaming space for a while (perhaps 2-3 years after Vision's release at best).

[@johnatkinson1111]

I do think Apple is approaching the Vision Pro not as a gaming device but as a lifestyle device similar to how the iPhone is primarily portrayed. They seem to be focusing on things like productivity tools and being able to multitask in a 3 dimensional space. The problem is that Apple has put all the most advanced tech they had in the Vision Pro that it skyrocketed the price that they're trying to make it easy to pitch it as a business expense, like something you could use around the office. If Apple wanted it to be a gaming device I think they would have made controllers for it. The finger gestures are cool and all but it's going to struggle in real time action that vr games require.

[@healthbeauty7853]

With the steam deck oled coming out the iPhone 15 pro max has no ground to stand on. When Apple launched Apple arcade nobody cared.

[@xyz4306]

Well as a starter this is not bad at all. Give it time to get it in a stable position. Developers will understand how mobile gaming works and smartphone soc will be greater every year. So for me it's a good thing for the portable gaming concept

[@FoxxFire]

I swear, and this is the truth, every time I finish a damn video from this channel, i feel a little smarter. I hope the audience realizes the quality of this script is not normal. The words chosen are so deliberate, so articulate yet understandable, so compact yet complete -- this is a top-tier tech article being recited through a free KZbin video. I watch a lot of KZbin, particularly tech channels. I have seen most or all creator videos from channels over 50k subs. On this there can be no argument. There are two, precisely two channels whose scripts are unmatched, and it is not particularly close. Number one is Snazzy Labs. Number two is (or was) Rene Ritchie. Thank you for another year of outstanding videos, Quinn. Looking forward to your continued growth in the coming year. Happy Holidays man.

[@snazzy]

The kindest of words! Thank you so very much.

[@harshrajjadhav940]

True the script writing is a league above others. Each word carries weight. ​@@snazzy

[@RC2225]

It's sad that the good mobile games from the late 00s until 2012 are gone. Were they complex? No, most of them not. But at least they played around with touch control, accelerometer etc. Even Gameloft made good games. Asphalt 4 is still my favorite racing game with a large variety of tuning and car options. A5 was already a significant step back in tuning, but had some nice tracks with shortcuts and motorcycles are no longer separated. Galaxy On Fire 2 is still today one of my most played game with over 200h. I remember that GoF 2 was with 11 CHF crazy expensive for an iPad app. Then it received two dlcs for 7 CHF each.

[@Roko-jb5hl]

The biggest problem with mobile gaming is the screen size. So… that will still be a problem for the foreseeable future. And one that the Steamdeck only remedies a bit. While I had a ton of fun on my Nintendo DS way back when, now my aging eyes can’t even locate the darn thing.

[@AxleGrinder]

10:28 I think this part is supposed to be the quiet bit… I mean, you’re talking about literally one of the worst practices in modern tech and services right here. It isn’t new, it isn’t clever and it isn’t ever a good thing for consumers, just shut up.

[@robertp457]

“Good enough” gaming isn’t a good enough reason to consider gaming on an iPhone.

[@MrSamPhoenix]

This is pretty interesting. Mostly because Apple is taking gaming seriously.

[@lucasLSD]

8:36 No one in brazil is gonna buy those AAA games on a phone, they are as expensive as the console ones, and everyone that has an iphone here also has money to buy two consoles or a gaming PC. With the added downside of every mobile premium game of the companies stop updating it to work with the current OS version, I'm never buying a premium phone game ever again.

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

Yeah this is pretty incredible. No, it’s not completely “there yet” in the sense that it could get a lot more optimized, fps caps should eventually be removed, and MetalFX should be updated to actually make a difference in this game specifically. But this is crazy that you can do this on a smartphone. And yes, it’s no surprise that it’s an iPhone that is doing it first, because the iPhone is simply the most powerful smartphone. But eventually, as phones get more and more powerful, I could see these console games-on-phone situations become mainstream with every manufacturer.

[@Mkhl4Sure]

except is not the most powerful, i am sure Android with latest QUALCOMM chip could run the game with the caps that have been put on it. Only reason it was advertised on iPhone is because of the popularity of iPhone

[@fliko6808]

I dont get it, how could you say that Iphone is more powerful if Qualcomm already launched a snapdragon chip that beats the latest Apple chip? and now on Android you can basically play a lot of AAA pc games through emulation, GTA 5 at 1080p/40 fps at medium settings.... fallout 3 at 60 fps

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

@@Mkhl4SureiPhone IS the most powerful. ~10% more powerful CPU, which is the bottleneck of the GPU. And the GPU is in fact on par with the 8 Gen 3 from Qualcomm, despite the latter’s higher 3D Mark score (26 vs 29 fps). 3D Mark is not the only benchmark that should be used to gauge the performance, that’s where most reviewers like Geekerwan go astray. And those that test more usually just check Antutu - a benchmark that is absolute bullcrap for cross-platform testing (admitted as such by the devs lol)

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

@@fliko6808Because it doesn’t beat the Apple A17 Pro. Those who say it does are going simply by the 3D Mark scores shown by most KZbinrs. There’s about a 3-4 fps difference (25 or 26 vs 29) in everything, and a larger disparity in ray tracing. However, 1) 3D Mark takes better advantage of Android using the Vulcan API and doesn’t perfectly utilize Apple’s hardware with Metal; you have to go by multiple different benchmarks. And 2) 3D Mark’s Solar Bay is fundamentally flawed; in addition to the same issue I mentioned above, it tests only one aspect of ray tracing, when there are many aspects of the ray tracing processes and the rendering engine in general. It’s not fair to go off of 3D Mark, no more than it was to go off Geekbench back before the much more accurate Geekbench 6, but it’s considered the standard benchmark so everyone uses it.

[@fliko6808]

@@Epicgamer_Mac Oh, I didn't knew that, thanks for the info! and sorry for saying this wrong.

[@anenglishmanplusamerican7107]

“I’m a totally blind person, and I love Apple. The only reason I have a Windows computer, besides studying, is to play games, which Apple considerably lacks compatibility for. Additionally, there are games accessible for the visually impaired community. Hence, I asked my mum and dad to buy me a Windows laptop, which they did. But think about this: I shouldn’t have to spend $1200 on a gaming laptop when I already have a Mac for which I shelled out $1300. I enjoy using both of them, just saying.”

[@Mayor_Imad]

The Ejection of the IPhone cover sounds like clicking a pistol

[@MmntechCa]

I remember a little over a decade ago when pundits were claiming smartphones were going to make handhelds obsolete. And they almost did. It's one of the reasons why the Vita and 3DS struggled out the gate. But the problems with mobile today are still largely the same as they were back then. I remember when SquareEnix ported the Final Fantasy 3D remakes to iOS. People kicked up a fuss saying they were way too expensive. They were were going for $20 on the app store (if that), and were originally (IIRC) $40 on the DS. Touch screens are also arse for most games, so you need to buy a grip as well. Where as the Switch or Deck are both from established companies who are heavily invested in long term support, and offer a consistently decent experience out of the box. They're also seen as premium products, so people are willing to pay a higher price for games. I think the portable market has bifurcated to such a degree that mobile and handheld are just two completely different things now that cater to completely different people. It'll take a lot of work to convince the latter to switch to the former.

[@azenyr]

Apple plain refusal to not support universal graphics tecnologies like Vulkan, FSR and everything else that's used in literally ALL other OSs from Windows to Linux to consoles to Android, just makes porting games to the mac a huge burden. Yes you can use their new translation thing but that has a lot of bugs and many games still require a lot of tweaks and optimizations. Developers just don't care about investing so much time into supporting BS apple-exclusive technologies for 5 people to use, and Apple probably will change to a different tech or rewrite the whole thing in a few years. Metal, MetalFX and other stuff is great and all but its not universal and not what the industry is moving to.

[@marcustmusic]

I've played Minecraft PE a long time ago until it was replaced with the Bedrock version and I can say that is the best mobile gaming experience I've ever had, I even play a little bit of Apple Arcade games recently only because I got a few months free and may or may not be a paid subscriber. I even tried playing Xbox Cloud Gaming-because it does work through the Cloud Gaming website-and it's fine. My problem with mobile gaming is the market. I played anything from the free time-waster apps to the handful of AAA games you could find and even cloud gaming. While I'm more likely to buy games for my Mac or main desktop system or even console, I find myself not paying for games on mobile unless I played the console versions or I game on the cloud. $40-$70 on console is steep but adjustable whereas $40-$70 on a borked version on mobile is unsellable to me. Especially considering these "higher quality" games than free-to-play is only on the latest iPhones and those same countries you mentioned that can't afford mobile gaming, they can't afford a $1500 phone. Even if you find a AAA game that is decent, it sucks compared to consoles or PCs. Something else I just remembered, gaming phones already exist. ASUS I think makes their ROG phones that are dedicated to gaming and even they can't change the mobile game market. I think Apple just needs to find ways to make actually good AAA games for under $10 while also giving fair pay to developers. For now, I suggest Game Pass with a controller for your AAA on mobile thirst

[@johnatkinson1111]

I think if apple wants to succeed with mobile gaming they have to do it in a roundabout way, like with resident evil 4 when you buy the iOS version you also get the Mac version which helps as you could easily buy the Mac version and have the iPhone version just be a bonus but what I'd really like to see is apple put some more focus on the Apple TV in terms of gaming. Like not only is it one of the cheapest ways into the apple ecosystem but it could also work as the console side of the gaming initiative. Like if you got a game on Mac, iOS, and Apple TV it becomes a much better sell as you basically get the to go version, the desktop version, and the console version for one price.

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

Same, the 3D GTA games' ports were also some of the best the app store had to offer, despite the high number of bugs compared to PC/PS2/Xbox

[@Moustafa-Sabry]

What is the game on the left at 9:20?

[@snazzy]

Alan Wake 2.

[@Moustafa-Sabry]

@@snazzythanks!!

[@redxblood85]

Apples big issue with AAA gaming is themselves. Gamers (console/PC sense) and Developers (console/pc focused ones) can't take Apple hardware serious because Apple doesn't. If Apple truly dedicated to improving the gaming experience and leveraged their phenomenal ecosystem, I would dive in head first. I would legitimately sell my PC and go full macOS for work and gaming. I would love to be able to buy a game, play it on my iPhone on the go, play it on my Apple TV (assuming apple would drop an Mx equipped Apple TV) when on the couch, and play it on my Macbook Pro/Mac Studio or whatever mac I have while at my desk. I would pay the $60/$70 price tag because I do understand AAA games cost a lot to develop and I enjoy these experiences but absolutely a casual person would definitely use an Apple Arcade + to access higher end games. All these changes are amazing and Apple already has the install base there and devs will always be willing to develop where the numbers are, it's just Apple has to truly invest and care about gaming for the people and developers to take them serious and commit to it.

[@sazomedia]

Great video, Quinn!!! I always loved the writing for your scripts!

[@quixomega]

I hate the mobile game industry's monetization strategies, at this point I mostly just play Duo Lingo and Cytus 2.

[@morm2173]

Psssh I play Mario 3d world, Assassin creed, Mario Oddyseey, Star Wars Unleashed, and Smash bros on my s23 ultra and tab s8 all the time. That's why Samsung and androids are superior for gaming like red magic pro and huawei

[@DoubleO7-11]

I miss Infinity Blade so much 😢

[@Super-qi9uj]

The fact that a game as demanding as re 4 and now death stranding can Run at mostly a stable 30 is huge it means pretty much all ps4 games could run on it, but it needs time developers are waiting for other publishers to dip their toes in and when they see that AAA games they have already made can be profitable on this new market they will start porting their games, if I had a wishlist I guess I would want Elden ring, gta5, rdr2, ds3. re2&3 remakes along with re 7. these games are less demanding that re4 which already runs on it, re4 ran on ps4 at 900p35-40 and rdr2 ran on ps4 at 1080p30 same with death stranding, so on paper they should work.

[@game.different]

My first AAA experience with MacOS was Unreal. Not Unreal Tournament 20xx, but Unreal version 1.0 in the 90s. And it was amazing on a hacked Diamond Monster 3D.

[@pascaledmonton]

Yes. What happened that we cannot seem to be able to play any premium titles in the 2020s with hardware supposedly 1,000 times better?

[@JulioCesar-ko6jv]

Here at Brazil it is easier for someone to buy a ps5 than an iPhone 15 pro or pro max, taxes and prices are crazy high, and imported products are even worse because of our money value. I paid something around 7K on my 14 pro max 128Gb, the minimum salary here today is around 1.306BRL (269usd)

[@fVNzO]

Another unbridled banger of a video just in time for christmas day. Please do not stop making videos. Please make more videos more often.

[@daniebello]

They’re only needs to be three settings for each Apple device. Graphics, performance, balanced.

[@robertp457]

When Apple takes gaming seriously there won’t be any question if they are taking seriously, to be clear this isn’t Apple taking it seriously. Their marketing made it sound like these AAA games played on the iPhone 15 would be a great experience and from the video it looks like a terrible experience.

[@joshd108]

Waiting patiently for assassins creed. I just want to experience it on my phone for the novelty of it

[@de7518]

When do you think it will relase?

[@SupperUpper]

What controllers are these? The ones right at the beginning?

[@fty-ys4ni]

Backbone

[@farguc]

I remember getting GTA 3 on Android and thinking it will be years before we get GTA 4 on a phone or handheld. Now we have GTA 5 on Steam Deck running at very playable settings/fps. It's insane. The fact that my phone can run games that I played growing up like its nothing is already amazing. The fact that I can do it with more recent games now is even more insane.

[@Zantsak]

If I were Apple, I would make the iPhone a console. One that connects to a screen and allows more than one player to connect with other phones. The phone just becomes the controller. Why stick to a small screen? With the way the SOCs are improving, we should have this be a reality in the next 4-5 years. I would be very surprised if they are not planning this.

[@jamescampbell1599]

I think when people were discussing that they did single binary - they are meaning that the code is 99% shared between them. Just because it's a seperate App on each App Store doesn't mean it wasn't built as a Single Target in Xcode or even if it is a seperate target that it isn't just the same code.

[@joseabraham777]

I have seen some videos and the iPhone is so much powerful but it has serious thermal throttle issues, it’s like having an i7 CPU on a MacBook Air Chasis, is useless. In a test, the Galaxy S23 Ultra performs better on gaming without screen dimming and without thermal throttle. I’m an iPhone user and I really like my iPhone but Apple must solve the overheating problem that they have (at least) from the iPhone 12 series.

[@joseabraham777]

By the way, great video, I agree with you.

[@loganrussell48]

Maybe Vision Pro will have the hardware needed to let you play the AAA on the “Big Screen” and pick up where you left off on your phone, and also have decent frame rates

[@febrianadji5758]

What if you add coolers for 15PM? Would the game(RE4:R) exceed 30fps limit?

[@emmabentley7945]

Anti aliasing is a major issue even on MacOS try running X plane 12 at 2XAA it's not possible , FXAA is the only way, interesting video, thanks for all your videos this year, merry Christmas ❤

[@OldMan_PJ]

Worked for Google, oh wait.

[@floppa9415]

3:59 I think this isn't the only case of this. Thats the big issue for me with stuff from the Appstore, especially games. One day you might just wake up and your 60$ purchase might simply not work anymore!

[@TinTinGamez]

lol when apple boys try to play games...get fked

[@tahanumansimsek]

Didn’t Divinity Original Sin 2 prove that you can make an amazing game and make money in ipadOS at least. That port is amazing with both awesome touch, gamepad and keyboard and mouse support.

[@Isengardtom]

I’m hoping they’ll someday port BG3 to it Another game I enjoy playing on it is Civ 6

[@tahanumansimsek]

@@Isengardtom I think they will. They are already working on a mac port, and I think they said that if it could handle it they can move onto ipad from there. Won’t be coming anytime soon though.

[@Veizzy69]

Fun Fact: you can run resident evil village just aswell on a iPhone 14 pro and even on older iPhones completely fine by side loading it

[@gitmemed2668]

Having a purchased game throughout all of apple ecosystem for a one time purchase is actually pretty cool

[@emiel333]

Great 👍 video. I know that the A17 Pro chip supports hardware ray tracing. Does either RE Village or RE 4 supports ray tracing? 

[@nulian]

Very big chance of no because ray tracing costs a lot of video memory and CPU so would have big impact in such a low powered device.

[@alg003]

Older AAA titles that can now be played well on moble devices can either be really good for gaming or really bad for gaming

[@YoVuelo]

I’m still waiting for no mans sky on iPad M1 and better

[@BraxtonMeyer]

you could've just said what "Nintendon't"

[@BearApps]

It’s worth noting that upscalers (at least the amd and nvidia variants) have and tend to improve drastically over time.

[@vaughanprint]

Nelson, only one criticism, generally about all gaming… it’s still not as crazy as a Saturday night in the local village. Merry Christmas.

[@Luisgvn]

Great analysis on the port and market 👏🏻

[@KhoaNguyen-xd3er]

Some of the best mobile game I played was during 2013-2015, on an iPad 2 and iPhone 3gs. Nowadays no such games bring me back that joy

[@AnythingFitz]

Nothing like playing Call of Duty Zombies and Bioshock on a tiny iPhone/iPad, miss those days

[@nff_1950]

infinity blade was such gem and epic decide to killed it

[@martin22336]

I think remote gaming on an iphone is the most efficient thing you can do. Native is a waste if space and its a phone.

[@mrsebsin]

As a Mac lifer, I wish I could properly game on it, but it’s not going to be a reality in my lifetime. I’m building a new $2K SFF gaming pc right now over the holidays to replace my $3K prebuilt that’s about 5 years old. The PC JUST runs everything from AAA to random emulators and everything in between. Sure I can play some stuff on Mac or iPhone but it’s so limited why would I bother, especially for the cost. Not too mention I can stream my PC to my phone or Mac and play my entire library from my PC. You nailed it Quinn, Apple refuses to put in the leg work, AKA lose money to build up their gaming business. For such a rich company, it would seem so easy to do this.

[@andrescarrasco1248]

Many Aaa games have been ported to smartphones, but they all suck, because a touch screen is just a horrible way to play games that were meant to be played with a control or keyboard and mouse, phones have phones games that are designed to be played with touch interactions, so these AAA will just be a marketing strategy but very few people will buy those or play them

[@denisruskin348]

Looks terrible. MetalFX is way too aggressive here. Just skip a yearly iPhone buy and get a 1TB Steam Deck OLED.

[@snazzy]

There is no FSR2 on this port. It’s an iPhone.

[@denisruskin348]

@@snazzy Yeah it's MetalFX, which lately was debunked to have been heavily developed using FSR code.

[@Steamrick]

The best game on the iPhone by far (IMO) is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

[@AZREDFERN]

I would love if GTA VI launched on the iPhone, since Rstar always launches console first, and I don’t feel like buying a the latest and greatest console just to play one game again, or waiting 2 years for a PC port. Otherwise where there’s a will, there’s a way. And there might be an early port available.

[@RedDieGaming1]

To me this is a win i always loved console games on mobile, i remember Prince of Persia WW ported by gameloft and assassin creed chronicles i was amazed back then with it, the only difference is the performance and graphics has changed, i would happily buy these games but apple need to make the iPhones run more cooler so we can have a stable frame rate, or else its just better off be on the M series iPads

[@Jamo12]

Love the beard. Looking like a true Burger King. Also, appreciate your opinion videos a lot. Good to have somebody who things for themselves

[@archibaldtuttle3803]

Infinity blade was incredible for its time

[@RichAesthetic]

The best camera is the one that you have on you when needed. Same can be said for a console.

[@EricHoffmann]

A clever review, congrats 😊

[@dfgdfg_]

I'm not sending 27% fees to Tim Apple. That should go to the developers

[@Drkbadger7719]

Wish bioshock still worked

[@codythep]

Harrowing facts about the mobile half of the gaming industry at large.

[@rigen97]

I think the new toolkit is still a bit short of incentivizing big studios and developers to voluntarily release their games on iPhone. It's definitely not going to be enough to make iPhone exclusive titles yet. But who knows! It's definitely an engineering feat! In an imaginary world where everything is ideal, the money shot would be to release Nintendo switch games on iPhones. It's the perfect choice: similar architecture, kinda similar OS base, and the games were already built with focus on efficiency. It would be a marriage in heaven. But knowing the two companies I'm not going to hold my breath for that 😅

[@awesomeferret]

Remember, any game that can run on an Xbox 360 can be ported to modern smartphones. The only reason that we don't have AAA console quality gaming on mobile is because nobody expects it. There is no technical reason whatsoever. It's really weird that games like GTA V haven't been ported to mobile yet. The only thing that's novel about this is that it includes a few modern AAA games. Even AA games on mobile aren't novel anymore (THQ Nordic has a few great mobile ports of games like Wreckfest and SpongeBob BFBB RH).

[@johnj8639]

Comparing one of the largest and most successful development studios in the world to a significantly smaller studio doesn't seem fair, not to mention the game still got graphical updates in 2023. Alan Wake doesn't appear to be using its max settings either, despite all that you can still see the advantage of all the new graphics technologies implemented in Alan Wake that far surpass anything used in RDR2, especially when comparing artificing of raster techniques that RDR2 uses with reflections and shadows, they don't at all compare to the new techniques. Compare Cyberpunk with it self on release date, to now and you'll see how far graphics have come.

[@underdasink8641]

I feel like capcom should of noted that the intense graphics are only for hardware in the future like the iPhone 16 17 18 so we wouldn’t all be turning it all the way up just to see how it if for the game to crash when anything intense is going on

[@TheSterlingArcher16]

I think there’s a ton of opportunity to port older AAA games to iPhone. Skyrim would run great on iPhone, new AAA games not so much.

[@high-captain-BaLrog]

i remember infinity Blade by square enix quite well and a few other early 2010s games Mobile gaming went down in quality and went up in mediocre mass appeasing pandering with pubg and genshin and whatever the heck else

[@jihadrouani5525]

This is exactly what I would suggest to Apple, buy a bunch of studios including indie ones or AA since they're much much cheaper (you can get 10 * AA studios with the price of 1 * AAA studio), but the point is invest in everything, then create Apple Arcade Plus which is dedicated to AA+ games and keep improving the hardware and bringing more studios and exclusives and fund ports until it's big... That would be perfect, and hopefully Google does the same on the Android side.

[@CityStarrzz]

Controls don’t make this feasible. Gaming on a touch screen is shit, and the amount of people who would bother buying a dedicated add on to add a controller dock is slim, and anyone they could see syncing a ps5 or Xbox controller sounds great, until you realize they would rather game on a console. It’s just not worth it.

[@jihadrouani5525]

@@CityStarrzz I don't know if you missed the part that says mobile gaming is bigger than PC gaming and Console gaming combined... There's a massive market out there for handheld/mobile, the point is beyond if there's a market, we already know it exists and it's massive, the question is how to best capitalize on it. Mobile users already play with on-screen controls, so devs need to make better ones for AAA games, or assisted controls etc....

[@CityStarrzz]

@@jihadrouani5525 no, I noticed. But those games aren’t AAA or even double A studios. They’re horrendously addictive bullshit, pick up for five minutes at a time game that bored people play. There would be no point trying to compete against real developers who make narrative titles, or COD style shooters with complex controller layouts. You’d have to dilute the experiences too much. It’s disingenuous to even consider mobile gaming and gaming the same sector. The demographics aren’t even the same.

[@johnatkinson1111]

I personally think the Apple TV is where apple is really missing out. You have a set top box that already has stuff like support in the Unity game engine and controller support so why not put more focus into it. Like the Mac is the clear desktop environment and the iPhone is the clear mobile environment but with the power of Apple Silicon they could make a serious game console environment, Like an Apple TV "Pro" of some sort that gets a more powerful chip but brings console like experiences, and once you've ported to the Apple TV it becomes easier to port to iOS.

[@jihadrouani5525]

@@CityStarrzz Most of the profit is not coming from shovel ware like Quinn is saying, in the mobile market there's a similar hierarchy to PC gaming where 90% of the profit is made from the top 10% games, titles such as Genshin Impact, Asphalt 9, Among Us, Brawl Stars are making tens of billions per year. The production quality of those games is very high. AA games would fit nicely but they need to be reworked a bit around accessibility and controls. GTA The trilogy just hit mobile and it's crazy popular. Mobile gaming is gaming if you ever played a premium mobile game lol