Few publishers have succeeded in selling premium games on mobile for more than £10, often more than £5 (I've always been intrigued as to how well Square Enix's £15-£20 ports of old Final Fantasy games fare). This feels like the beginning of a major step-change for mobile gaming, and the games industry in general – and yet I have questions and doubts that linger.įirst, there's the question of price. So finally we have smartphones that are powerful enough to play a fully fledged console game, with the correct controls, and it will run natively without lag. While touchscreen controls have never quite fit with larger games, the option to use buttons and sticks – including on a controller you may already own – removes a major hurdle, even if it is a little ungainly playing with a phone clip compared to a proper handheld system. The fact that smartphones are compatible with traditional game controllers (the iPhone 15 Pro will link up with the PS5 DualSense) or even gamepad-like accessories such as the much-lauded Backbone controller means the age-old problem of interface has been minimised. Bringing console games to this format opens up new revenue sources for publishers and potentially new customers. Games companies know that's where the biggest audience is and therefore the biggest potential for growth – hence Microsoft attempting to buy King owner Activision Blizzard, Take-Two snapping up Zynga, EA purchasing Glu, and so on.Īnd just as all other forms of entertainment have made their way to smartphones – books, audiobooks, movies, TV, music, comics, etc – some may argue that it's inevitable that video games of all scopes will eventually be available on mobile. Mobile has been the biggest sector of the games market for years now. The biggest video games just aren't suited to the smaller screen It's impossible not to hear that and not raise your hopes, plus at least one eyebrow. Seeing blockbuster single-player games of this scale on mobile is unheard of, yet Assassin's Creed Mirage will reportedly be the full console experience ported to a device we carry around with us every day. Most, if not all, of these are multiplayer-centric games that offer cross-play with their console versions. Mobile users can already play Minecraft, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Genshin Impact and a whole range of other experiences that would not look out of place on a traditional games platform – plus there are more on the way, such as Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed spin-off Codename Jade. This is not the first time Apple has tried to bring console-like experiences to iOS (anyone remember Infinity Blade?). So I was more than a little amused to wake yesterday morning and find that Apple has only gone and announced that Assassin's Creed Mirage, Death Stranding, Resident Evil Village and other AAA games are coming to iPhone 15 Pro. My character's actions and movements were slightly delayed from when I instigated them, but even if they had been synchronised, there was part of me that wondered if this sort of title would ever be suited to a mobile device. I've barely used the service since it went into beta – in fact, I don't regularly play any games on my phone – but I thought I'd give it a go and see how well it ran. Weirdly enough, I was playing Fable 2 on Tuesday night, using my phone and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox
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