Apple Might Be Missing The Point With Its Half-Hearted Step Into Gaming
No one seems to want straight ports of AAA games on mobile.
Another year, another iPhone. Apple unveiled the new iPhone 16 and 16 Pro Monday with all the usual bells and whistles we’ve come to expect: new cameras, a new well-implemented gimmick in the dedicated camera button, and incremental internal upgrades.
In typical iPhone fashion, this year’s base model is inheriting all of the features of last year’s Pro model. That means those who upgrade to any of the 2024 iPhones will also have the ability to play full-featured AAA games like Death Stranding and Assassin’s Creed Mirage. But while giving more people the opportunity to play these impressive ports is a cool added feature, I still think Apple’s attempt to offer PlayStation-style experiences in the palm of your hand will continue to go unnoticed.
For one, Apple is neglecting the biggest, most obvious elephant in the room. People don’t want console-sized games on their mobile devices. When I think of the complex controls of a game like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the last thing I want to do is cram all of those inputs onto a six-and-a-half-inch touch screen. When I think of the terrifying atmosphere of a Resident Evil 4 Remake, experiencing that on the smallest screen possible sounds like an injustice to the developer’s original intentions.
Like the iPhone 15 Pro before it, the iPhone 16 can play full console games.
The sales of these earlier iPhone ports corroborate this. Those Resident Evil 4 Remake and Resident Evil 8 ports sold 7,000 and 5,750 copies respectively, according to a report from Mobile Gamer. Assassin’s Creed Mirage moved under 3,000 units. The iOS port of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding fared the best of these releases, but still earned a poultry 10,600 downloads since its release in January 2024.
There’s no doubting just how big the mobile game market is. But those numbers don’t translate to game sales for AAA games. Simply put, playing larger games on a $1000 iPhone might be too weird a concept for the average person interested in games, when consoles that can play them better are as cheap as $300.
It echoes the exact growing pains that PlayStation and third-party developers learned after the release of the PlayStation Portable in 2005. When Sony released a handheld with an analog stick and the ability to play full 3D games that looked comparable to a PS2, developers rushed to deliver huge games.
Not even a fully-featured Metal Gear Solid sequel could convince people to play the big games they’re used to on console on much smaller screens.
In a couple of years, however, it was clear that audiences weren’t so keen on the idea. Sure, playing a full Metal Gear Solid game in handheld form was an incredible feat of engineering. But Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, sold just 52,000 copies in its first month. Both PSP Grand Theft Auto games, Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories, were eventually ported to the PS2. Even Sony would do the same with first-party offerings like Pursuit Force, Secret Agent Clank, and Daxter. Meanwhile, direct ports of PS2 games like Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, looked and played great, but often suffered from terrible load times.
Developers for the less powerful Nintendo DS, on the other hand, mostly stuck to designing around the strengths of the device. As a result, the DS library accumulated noteworthy games quicker than the PSP. The DS arguably has a library that has aged far better than its PlayStation competitor.
It's been nearly 20 years since the PSP learned these lessons. The market has changed, as devices like the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch have blurred the lines between the stuff you play on a TV and the portable market. But I still think it's misguided to think anyone wants to play stuff not specifically designed for mobile on their phones.
Playing Death Stranding on iPhone is probably the most inconvenient way to play Hideo Kojima’s classic.
Why play Assassin’s Creed Mirage when Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade promises something more well-suited for the platform? Why struggle to play a 50-hour game like Death Stranding when games like What The Car? or Honkai: Star Rail deliver a much more satisfying experience for that device?
I hope Apple continues investing in gaming as a whole. The Apple Arcade is one of the best deals in gaming. And the strides made in making new games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies Of P playable on Macbooks and higher-end iPads sooner are welcome innovations it should go all in on.
But straight-up bringing giant games to iPhone just because it’s possible seems like a problematic approach to entering the business. Here’s to hoping Apple reassesses its approach to the market in the months ahead.
