Apparently the recent big profile game ports to Apple platforms have sold very little.

[Jimmyjames]

Those Assassin’s Creed, Resident Evil and Death Stranding ports have bombed - Mobilegamer.biz

Estimates suggest that fewer than 3,000 people have paid $49.99 to play Assassin’s Creed Mirage on iPhone. Other console ports like Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding have flopped too.

mobilegamer.biz

No idea if this is credible. Hope not. Will I ever see my dream of Apple as a credible gaming platform

 

[jbailey]

Those Assassin’s Creed, Resident Evil and Death Stranding ports have bombed - Mobilegamer.biz

Estimates suggest that fewer than 3,000 people have paid $49.99 to play Assassin’s Creed Mirage on iPhone. Other console ports like Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding have flopped too.

mobilegamer.biz

No idea if this is credible. Hope not. Will I ever see my dream of Apple as a credible gaming platform

Trying to cash in on iOS games is not likely to work if the game costs $50 or even $20. They should bring these games to the Mac where people are more used to paying for software. iOS software that does well is either free to play or very inexpensive. The only one of these games available on the Mac is Death Stranding as far as I can tell (I'm not a gamer).

 

[Jimmyjames]

Trying to cash in on iOS games is not likely to work if the game costs $50 or even $20. They should bring these games to the Mac where people are more used to paying for software. iOS software that does well is either free to play or very inexpensive. The only one of these games available on the Mac is Death Stranding as far as I can tell (I'm not a gamer).

All the RE games are available on Mac I think AC Mirage is the only iOS exclusive game.

 

[jbailey]

All the RE games are available on Mac I think AC Mirage is the only iOS exclusive game.

I guess Resident Evil Village is old enough that Apple didn't include it in their new games page.

 

[dada_dave]

Like you I have no idea how reliable these estimates are. Someone like @Andropov or @Nycturne might know.

If they are reliable, then these two quotes stand out to me:

“For me, it seems like these markets will remain separate, at least for some time,” adds Zubov. “Players who can afford flagship mobile devices and $50 for games are likely to have the resources to enjoy games on PC and console as well. On the other hand, players who can’t afford gaming devices or high-performance mobile phones are less likely to make a one-time $50 purchase.”

Appfigures head of insights Randy Nelson agrees that these console ports are a tough sell for the average mobile player. “While the hardware in consumers’ hands has made enormous progress towards technological parity with current-gen consoles, it’s uncertain how many actually realize it and consequently even consider they might be able to play the latest Resident Evil or Assassin’s Creed on their phone,” he tells us.

Basically consumers are uncomfortable with the idea of buying and playing these games on mobile devices and potentially see the experience as less than what they would get elsewhere and even if they are comfortable with it, if they are AAA-gaming enthusiasts have likely already purchased these games elsewhere and played them.

This is why some people have suggested that Apple need to throw good money at getting either an exclusive or at least a larger number of same-day AAA titles if they really want to start moving the needle. A complementary idea to getting exclusive or same day AAA games is to create an Apple-branded console, either based on the AppleTV-Playstation/Xbox concept or iPad-Switch/SteamDeck concept. Its internals wouldn't have to be any different and could run TVOS (or iPadOS) but would be packaged as a gaming focused machine, sold with both an Apple remote and Apple game controllers. It wouldn't have to be sold at a loss and would use its integration with the rest of the Apple ecosystem (play the game anywhere! - i.e. developers would have to agree that games made available to this gaming machine would have to be made available to any device, Mac or mobile, that are supported by their base specifications - use your current iPad/iPhone as an optional, keyword optional, second screen controller!).

The lack of interest in Apple-based AAA gaming is a mindset/cultural problem and that can be very stubborn thing to change without a frameshift. Apple spent so long in the weeds in the AAA gaming market that they have to completely reset developers' and consumers' expectations. That's why the SteamDeck is an important vehicle for Valve to sell its vision of SteamOS. It's just Linux reskinned on an AMD chip, but it changes the way people think about Linux on an AMD chip.

 

[Jimmyjames]

It is weird but now I see that Capcom credits the iPhone, in part, with an increase in sales.

Resident Evil Village Sales Top 10 Million Units Globally!

Capcom Co., Ltd. (Capcom) today announced that worldwide sales of Resident Evil Village surpassed 10 million units in the three years since its 2021 release, making it the fastest title in the series to hit this milestone.

t.co

Edit: holy crap the iPad autocorrect is getting worse. It “corrected“ Capcom to “that a so I’m”.

 

[Jimmyjames]

Like you I have no idea how reliable these estimates are. Someone like @Andropov or @Nycturne might know.

If they are reliable, then these two quotes stand out to me:



Basically consumers are uncomfortable with the idea of buying and playing these games on mobile devices and potentially see the experience as less than what they would get elsewhere and even if they are comfortable with it, if they are AAA-gaming enthusiasts have likely already purchased these games elsewhere and played them.

I agree with the first part of this. I own most of these games and the experience isn’t great on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. Getting a decent frame rate is a struggle.

I see this second argument a lot and perhaps it’s true: that’s there’s a finite amount of people who could be interested in these kinds of AAA games and we’ve reached the limit. They all use other devices. I do think possibility for new markets to open up to high end gaming exists, but it is difficult to reach I imagine. I am at a state in my life where I simply won’t have multiple computers or consoles. If the games arrive on macOS, great. If they don’t, I will be sad, but I’m not going to buy other computers to play them.

This is why some people have suggested that Apple need to throw good money at getting either an exclusive or at least a larger number of same-day AAA titles if they really want to start moving the needle. A complementary idea to getting exclusive or same day AAA games is to create an Apple-branded console, either based on the AppleTV-Playstation/Xbox concept or iPad-Switch/SteamDeck concept. Its internals wouldn't have to be any different and could run TVOS (or iPadOS) but would be packaged as a gaming focused machine, sold with both an Apple remote and Apple game controllers. It wouldn't have to be sold at a loss and would use its integration with the rest of the Apple ecosystem (play the game anywhere! - i.e. developers would have to agree that games made available to this gaming machine would have to be made available to any device, Mac or mobile, that are supported by their base specifications - use your current iPad/iPhone as an optional, keyword optional, second screen controller!).

Yes, I am very amenable to these ideas. I do think if Apple wants to move the needle, money probably needs to be spent. I heard the other day that Apple is spending 250 Million dollars on an F1 film. They seem to be completely unaware or not interested enough to make this kind of investment. I remember a year or so ago, Nat Brown, one of the main Game framework people at Apple (ex-Xbox, ex-Valve) was talking to an indie dev about bringing their game to the Mac. A third party joined in and said something to the effect of “just throw some of Apple’s money at him”. Nat replied “I wish” and hinted in no uncertain terms that there was no money for this kind of thing, but that Apple was willing to help in terms of technical help and possibly actual development work. That is to say, I think Apple is happy to make frameworks, tools and resolve technical issues that prevent porting of games, but they seem unwilling to directly pay for a game or game exclusivity. A weird stance given that engineers time is also money!

The lack of interest in Apple-based AAA gaming is a mindset/cultural problem and that can be very stubborn thing to change without a frameshift. Apple spent so long in the weeds in the AAA gaming market that they have to completely reset developers' and consumers' expectations. That's why the SteamDeck is an important vehicle for Valve to sell its vision of SteamOS. It's just Linux reskinned on an AMD chip, but it changes the way people think about Linux on an AMD chip.

I worry that Apple thinks it is doing what is required. After the release of the A17 Pro and M3 there was quite a bit of praise for the new gpu architecture. During some of the discussion about these gpus there was the following exchange between someone and Gokhan Avkarogullari (Gpu driver manager for Apple Silicon).

x.com

x.com

This was Gokhan’s reply:

x.com

x.com

 

[Nycturne]

Like you I have no idea how reliable these estimates are. Someone like @Andropov or @Nycturne might know.

I am somewhat insulated from the business estimation side of things (yay enterprise), so I can't really speak to the estimates themselves. I do know more companies are trying to make them better by being an information broker. "Sign up and we will compare your sales to competitors, you just need to give us access to your data." But this preys more on the smaller developers, I feel. Larger developers aren't going to want to basically sell their data to a broker to get a competitive analysis.

Basically consumers are uncomfortable with the idea of buying and playing these games on mobile devices and potentially see the experience as less than what they would get elsewhere and even if they are comfortable with it, if they are AAA-gaming enthusiasts have likely already purchased these games elsewhere and played them.

As a bit of a game player myself who finds their time stretched more as I get older, this at least describes my situation. The problem is that games suited for quick bites during a break/lunch or while waiting for a bus aren't AAA titles. These larger titles demand more of my attention for a longer period of time. They can certainly be rewarding, but it's a bit like trying to read a book when you only get time to read a couple pages at a time. It's really easy to forget the context of what you were reading next time you drop in than if you can get through a full chapter.

But I think this is partly why you see more games going towards faster gameplay loops where it fits into smaller gaps. I have a library of older arcade style games that I play for this sort of thing.

 

[leman]

Frankly I would be surprised if these ports sell well. All of these games are fairly old and have been out on other platforms for a while. For example, I already own Death Stranding on PS and Steam, why would I purchase it on the App Store again? Besides, I have no interest playing an immersive game of this type on my iPhone.

 

[Nycturne]

Frankly I would be surprised if these ports sell well. All of these games are fairly old and have been out on other platforms for a while. For example, I already own Death Stranding on PS and Steam, why would I purchase it on the App Store again? Besides, I have no interest playing an immersive game of this type on my iPhone.

Another example for me is that the remake of Riven just came out yesterday. I bought it instantly, but on Steam. It's available on the App Store same day, but being able to get a single license for both Windows and Mac right now is value to me as well.

 

[Jimmyjames]

Frankly I would be surprised if these ports sell well. All of these games are fairly old and have been out on other platforms for a while. For example, I already own Death Stranding on PS and Steam, why would I purchase it on the App Store again? Besides, I have no interest playing an immersive game of this type on my iPhone.

Death Stranding and some of the others are older, but AC Mirage, RE4 and a few others are recent. Time will tell I suppose, and AC Shadows being a day 1 release on Mac and iPad will perhaps give us a better idea.

I do still want to push back against the idea that there is a market for games which is saturated by existing consoles and pcs. There is scope for more people to get into gaming.

I feel the strategy that stands the best chance of success is the buy once and play on all Apple’s platforms. With the addition of a good controller, iPhone gaming can be enjoyable.

 

[dada_dave]

I feel the strategy that stands the best chance of success is the buy once and play on all Apple’s platforms. With the addition of a good controller, iPhone gaming can be enjoyable.

Apple's renewed push for Mac gaming relies on its whole ecosystem to attract users

Apple has to catch up to PCs on its gaming library, but making everything just work across devices is an attractive proposition.

www.tomshardware.com

Where Apple may have an advantage is where it typically excels: in its ecosystem. If games are released for the Mac, but then you can play them on your iPad or iPhone, it could open up gaming to tons of people who wouldn't have done so previously — and make it easier for enthusiast Mac gamers to play anywhere.

Playing anywhere has been a bit of a white whale for gaming companies lately. Think of cloud services like Game Pass from Microsoft or GeForce Now from Nvidia. The idea was you'd stream games to play them anywhere.

Apple's vision strikes me as a slightly more traditional version of the idea. Never mind streaming, but how about running the game locally on each device?

 

[dada_dave]

Likely same event as above but written up by GameSpot:

Apple Is Doubling Down On Its Gaming Ambitions

At a showcase of titles and hardware, Apple shows that it is committed to making its devices a serious place to game and wants to make it as easy as possible for developers to port their titles to its platforms.

www.gamespot.com

They reiterate that “recent news claims” that the recent ports haven’t sold that well. But they don’t source that so I suspect it is the same as what @Jimmyjames linked to already and whose accuracy is under debate. To be fair the author couches this comment in the context of how few mobile devices can run these games and a few more tidbits of why Apple’s efforts might meet with more future success beyond what was already covered in the Tom’s article. The author also doesn’t seem to realize that Crossover is Wine but in the grand scheme of things that’s neither here nor there.

Mildly more interesting than the article itself is the comments section. Now GameSpot’s comments section is, unsurprisingly for a gaming website, rather toxic. Blind hatred of all things Apple and the repeating of shibboleths like Macs being a closed platform or Mac users are sheeple and cultists with no hint of self awareness is to a certain extent expected. So why is this at all interesting?

Because it’s expected. Even if they are a vocal minority of people who are “too online” it does reveal an undercurrent of hostility or at least disinterest within “gaming culture” (I use the term culture loosely) towards Macs and Apple. That culture will be much harder to change than anything else and any missteps by Apple, especially those that feed into these preconceived notions, will set Apple back much further because of it.

 

[diamond.g]

I wonder how much good will Apple could garner by participating in the tournaments for games like League of Legends or Valorant (that runs on macOS right?). Sponsoring/Providing hardware to get visibility in the eyes of the folks who are into those things.

Same with working with MS to get Call of Duty Warzone on macOS then sponsor a tournament using Apple hardware. Rinse and repeat.