The iPad appertunity by Fraser MacInnes
Steve Jobs described it as, “magical and revolutionary” during its unveiling, but developers seem just a likely to label the iPad as confusing and complicated. That’s not to say that the games development community isn’t excited about the arrival of the iPad. They are, and the droves of companies already piling resources into new titles are the proof.
Even so, there’s an industry-wide feeling that perhaps the iPad is a solution looking for a problem, and trying to come up with ways to make the best use of its unique strengths is easier said than done. It’s an issue that transcends developers and customers alike - ask someone why they want an iPad and they’ll stammer something about media, and apps, before waxing lyrical about how it revolutionises... it. Whatever it, is.
Like the vast majority of Apple’s products, the iPad has sex appeal. The iPad’s svelte design and come hither interface have cemented it as a highly desirable gadget and one of the most visible platforms on the planet - it’s not every new device that gets to make a guest appearance at the Oscars. People want to touch it and when they do, overwhelmingly, they want to own it, irrespective of a lack of ready justifications for how it’ll fit into their lives.
Which is why gaming on the iPad is the most likely candidate for encouraging people to part with the best part of £500. It may be a good netbook, or laptop replacement, but chiefly, the iPad is a lifestyle product, and if developers seize the opportunity to ably justify its existence in this area, we could be looking at the biggest gaming gold rush since the Wii.
Like the Wii, the iPad is a left-field device, upending the gaming paradigm completely while simultaneously drawing people in with its luxuriously physical interface. To that end, straight ports of iPhone games will not be compelling enough to convince punters en-masse, of the iPad’s unique charms.
But is it all that unique? Perhaps the most often cited criticism of the iPad is that it’s, “just and oversized iPod touch”. It’s a hard to refute, if somewhat unfair, summation of both platforms, especially given that the iPod touch is, technologically speaking, years ahead of its time.
Yes, the iPad is ostensibly an enlarged version of the iPod touch, but the extra wriggle room afforded by that 10” multi-touch LCD screen, not to mention its seriously nippy 1Ghz A4 system-on-a-chip processor, amount to something potentially much more ground-breaking.
The iPad’s two biggest challenges at the software level are discoverability and customer expectations. The iPad’s compatibility with the iPhone’s existing back catalogue of games makes standing out on the over-crowded App Store a Sisyphean task for developers. The price erosion that’s been a major sticking point for iPhone and iPod touch developers will also be an issue for the iPad.
But the iPad also provides an opportunity to put some distance between the scores of throwaway 59p efforts and premium priced titles. It seems likely that people who are sold on the idea of an iPad are also sold on the idea of digital delivery of software, and hence willing to put some spend into their iPad experience. If there’s a growing appetite for premium titles offering six to eight hour experiences, then developers had better be ready to deliver them.
If the iPad is the evolution of the iPod touch and, in turn, an evolution of Apple’s burgeoning relationship with the games industry, then its games need to mirror that evolution. There’s no doubt that Flight Control and Words With Friends will sell well on the iPad, but those are not the experiences that will sell the device to that golden middle chunk of the market where mass adoption takes place.
The iPad’s power and generous touchscreen allow for exciting new gaming experiences to emerge. What about a game where you watch a horror movie taking place in a Big Brother style house, requiring you to navigate between multiple simultaneous video streams in order to hunt down the killer’s location and alert the other housemates?
Or what about an e-book with embedded YouTube videos and links to character locations on Google Earth? What about a DJ Hero game where you can play against other iPad owners via Bluetooth, making use of your own music library?
The gaming possibilities afforded by the iPad are definitely new and, as Steve said, maybe even magical. The platform’s success at the sales counter will determine if it succeeds in being revolutionary.
Copyright © Fraser MacInnes. 2010.
Fraser MacInnes is co-founder and Managing Director of Pure Square Go
If you are interested in iPad game development and fancy meeting some like-minded people for a chance to chat about it, as well as get your hands on a device before it hits the shops, be sure to attend our iPad at the C.U.C. event in Liverpool on Wednesday 02 June from 6:00pm - 10:00pm.