To say that this is the big year of gaming is not an exaggeration.
Regardless of the rave reviews of "HIFI RUSH" and "Street Fighter 6" at the beginning of the year, and even the recently released "mixed reviews" masterpiece "Starry Sky", it has a positive rating of nearly 85% on MetaCritic, which is unimaginable in previous years.
(Source: MetaCritic)
Because of this, in the past six months, every noon, the company has almost become an arcade hall.
There are local PK "Street Fighter", there are two weeks of "Baldur's Gate 3", and there are unjust big people like me who pre-ordered "Starry Sky", while looking at the endless reading notes on the computer, while reflecting on their lives, how did they get to this point.
And every time like this, there is always a person silently watching the live broadcast of the game anchor, as if the whole person is isolated from the world, and it is very conspicuous in the company where almost everyone plays games.
That's right, that person is Xiao Li, a die-hard colleague who uses the Macbook Air.
If you want to ask Apple users what they are dissatisfied with, then the game is definitely one of them.
As we all know, the scarcity of "serious games" on Apple devices can even make the industry realize that "you can choose MAC for office/video editing, but you must choose Windows devices to play games".
(Source: Apple)
Interestingly, every time we talk about this in front of Xiao Li, he always opens Tomb Raider: Shadow and tries to prove something.
"Tso Mu Niang, who said that there is no game to play, this is Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider does not understand, soft maggots are starting to be embarrassed again, right!"
We can only smile at this stressful situation.
You see, someone broke the defense again.
Interestingly, even though Apple's reputation in the gaming industry has been so low, they have never stopped thinking about growing their gaming business.
In particular, the release of the iPhone 15 Pro seems to make Apple feel that it can do it again!
Just these two days, the iPhone 15 Pro development team was interviewed by IGN Southeast Asia, which delved into Apple's gaming ambitions for the iPhone 15 Pro, in which the Apple development team even made it clear that they "believe it (the iPhone 15 Pro series) will be the best game console."
(Source: Apple)
So what was the reaction on social media to the news?
What else could be the reaction? That, of course, is exactly what you and I imagined - Apple almost got it.
Domestic netizens left a message saying, "People from the Apple development team can say this kind of thing, how much unclean things are stained in their brains." ”
(Source: Weibo)
Internet users said, "I think I can use the money to buy the iPhone 15 pro to buy PS5, Xbox S, Switch and game computers."
(Source: X)
If nothing else, in the global user agreement, Apple is indeed winning.
But, believe it or not, Apple really came close to "the best mobile portable gaming device" in history.
And this story has to start in 2011.
(Source: Nokia)
Before 2011, mobile games were a very niche category.
Although non-smartphones at the time could generally run Java games, and Nokia was constantly promoting the development of the N-Gage game platform, the limitations of weak processor performance and T9 keyboard design made mobile games never achieve ideal sales, and could only exist as a super castrated version of console games.
(Source: N-Gage The Elder Scrolls: Key of Shadows, a work that can only run at less than 20 frames)
The birth of iPhone 4S can be said to have completely changed the situation of the mobile game market at that time, the powerful A5 dual-core processor and iOS 5 operating system, so that many manufacturers' creative capabilities have been fully released, providing players with a rich game experience.
"Fruit Ninja", "Angry Birds", "Endless Sword"...
At that time, these games with touch-screen intuitive operation as the core completely subverted the traditional console ecology dominated by buttons, which also made the iPhone the darling of the game market at that time.
(Source: Endless Sword)
In addition to these mini-games, there were even many masterpieces comparable to console games at that time.
And the leader of it is Gameloft Zhile, now known as "Pit Daddy Music".
As a mobile game manufacturer that has been famous since the Java era, Gameloft has developed a series of works on the iPhone, including "Thorn in the Back", "Modern Warfare 2/3/4/5", "Nova 2/3", "Gangstar: Maimi", and the content is fully benchmarked against a series of 3A console games such as "Call of Duty" and "Grand Theft Auto" at that time.
(Source: Gameloft)
Even today, these works are still classics on mobile platforms.
In junior high school at that time, if you had an iPhone, you would definitely become a hero in the entire grade.
Every lunch break between classes, there are always students in their own class or other classes, using various methods, or writing homework, or buying food for you, in exchange for the opportunity to play a game of "Fruit Ninja" or "Angry Birds" on the iPhone, and there are countless onlookers.
I still remember such memories today.
(Source: Apple)
So the question is, if it can have such a wonderful start, why did the iPhone's reputation in the gaming industry plummet as it does today?
The fundamental reason lies in the popularity of the F2P model.
Since 2013, buyout mode of single-player games has gradually disappeared on mobile platforms, replaced by F2P (Free to Play) krypton gold games widely respected by EA/Tencent and other companies, and mobile games have officially entered a completely different stage of development from console games.
(Source: "Plants vs. Zombies 2" released in 2013, a representative work of buyout to F2P system)
The F2P model, simply put, is that the manufacturer provides the game to the player for free, and then charges in other ways in the game.
This model first emerged in online games, and now it is popular in the field of mobile games, the fundamental reason is that it not only lowers the threshold for players to get started, but also solves the problem of piracy to a large extent, and can bring double revenue and profit.
Excessive profit orientation has also made mobile devices such as the iPhone farther and farther away from serious gaming equipment, and closer and closer to the "handheld slot machine".
Of course, Apple is not without thinking about this problem.
In September 2019, Apple launched the Apple Arcade game subscription service, claiming that players can play dozens of single-player games customized for iPhone/iPad sound measurement as long as they support a monthly subscription fee.
Now, four years later, as a game subscription service that Apple focuses on, Apple Arcade is still a tepid state, and these exclusive games obtained by Apple through cooperative customization, buyout exclusivity and other forms, the overall level lacks a stable foundation, which has become the fundamental reason why this service is difficult to promote.
(Known as the mobile version of Zelda's "Sea Horn 2")
Since the subscription system does not work, then it has to take the last path.
Apple chose to "port" this time as the latest step to hit the game market.
At the Apple conference a few days ago, Apple announced that the console version of "Assassin's Creed" will land on the mobile platform for the first time, and a series of works such as "Resident Evil 8" and "Death Stranding" will be landed, intending to build the iPhone into an emerging native 3A game platform to compete with Steam and PS5/Xbox/NS.
(Source: Apple, Assassin's Creed: Mirage)
If I were to say, it's normal for Apple to think this way.
After all, Apple's self-developed A17 Pro chip is currently the strongest processor in small-size mobile devices, and its graphics processor performance is theoretically up to 70% faster than that in iPhone 12 Pro, at least the performance is guaranteed.
But in my opinion, because of the performance of a certain advantage to think that the iPhone 15 Pro is the "best game console", Apple development team is indeed a little delusional.
Why am I not optimistic about the prospects of Apple's iPhone in gaming?
The first is the operation.
Apple's current strategy is to move games adapted to Macs, including operating modes, to the iPhone unchanged.
This also leads to the fact that if you want to play Resident Evil 8 on an iPhone, players either choose to carry a PS5/XBOX controller that can be adapted, or endure the virtual button hell shown below - trust me, no one can play the game well in this situation.
(Source: Capcom)
This is followed by storage.
At present, Apple's storage price is expensive, I think everyone can see it, 256GB 1000 yuan, 512GB 2000 yuan price, in the memory chip price plummeted this year, it really looks like a big joke, people are incomprehensible.
For reference, Apple's heavily promoted "Death Stranding" requires 80GB of storage space.
Resident Evil 8? 35GB storage.
Resident Evil 4 Reset? That's 70GB of storage.
(Source: Epic Store)
Who would want to use such expensive storage for games?
The answer is known only to Apple.
Nowadays, the relationship between "mobile games" and "console games" is constantly getting closer, and while mobile games continue to be "high-production", console games are also realizing the process of "mobility".
The success of the Nintendo Switch proves that the market space for handheld games is still very broad; The success of SteamDeck has attracted traditional PC manufacturers such as Asus and Lenovo to enter the game one after another, making playing console games anytime, anywhere = a market demand that cannot be ignored.
At this time of strife, Apple very much hopes that its iPhone will become the next blockbuster.
In my opinion, maybe for Genshin players, there will be a day.