IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Apple iPad Draws Excited, Yet Cautious Responses from Developers

Posted January 27, 2010 by James Brightman

The big iPad reveal from Apple dominated the news today, but the real implications of the new tablet device for the game industry are still to be determined. IndustryGamers spoke to analysts who seemed somewhat skeptical of the iPad's impact, and now we've also heard from several developers with experience in building hit games for the App Store. All four studios we spoke with seemed genuinely excited about the new opportunities iPad may offer, but it's clear that the iPhone will remain the dominant platform for some time. 

David Whatley, CEO of Critical Thought Games, developer of geoDefense Swarm (a #1 iPhone hit), commented, "The existing iPhone install base is already massive, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. The biggest impact is that the iPad could mean millions of potential new App buyers - both for existing products given the native app support, and new games developed from the ground up. As predicted, the device is basically a scaled up iPhone using the same essential SDK and App Store mechanism, and that's a good thing for small, indie studios. I believe the combination of a proven gaming interface and an astoundingly successful content delivery model means the iPad could be just as much of a boon for gaming as the iPhone was."

Whatley then went on to confirm that he does indeed intend to bring his hit iPhone franchise to iPad: "I haven't announced anything official yet - in fact, I'm still deciding on exactly what to do first. I'm most excited by the improved screen real estate this platform offers - a lot of game concepts that are great for multi-touch suffer from 'not enough room' on the tiny iPhone screen. Touch-based Real Time Strategy games will finally be a great thing. I'll say this, though: geoDefense is definitely coming to the iPad. In what form? I'll know soon!"

Sega, which of course did very well with Super Monkey Ball on iPhone, seemed equally interested in the iPad. "Any new technology such as this has a huge impact on the gaming space. When the iPhone was announced no one anticipated the vast amount of apps and games that would be coming down the wire and the iPad opens up the same possibilities. Great new technology means great opportunity and we anticipate some exciting games coming out," said Sean Ratcliffe, VP of Marketing at Sega of America. He added, "At this point there is nothing we can talk about specifically on the games side. But we have shown tremendous success with our IPhone games (like Super Monkey Ball and the classic Sonic titles) so we will definitely look at how we can be as successful with the next generation(s) of Apple hardware."

Tapulous is another big iPhone developer and the studio is eagerly looking forward to iPad. Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem told us, “This is big because it will build on the success of the iPhone and iPod touch, increasing the presence of the iPhone platform in the living room and the bedroom.  That means users will spend more time in front of iPhone OS devices, and less time in front of their TV and traditional console devices, which ultimately means they will spend more time in Tap Tap Revenge and other iPhone games. So this is part of a big shift from traditional console games aimed at hardcore gamers, and towards casual, social games enjoyed by everyone during their spare minutes." He added, "Tap Tap Revenge current titles will run unmodified on the iPad, and the new form factor opens up a world of new possibilities – for example, two-player mode will be a blast on the iPad. We’re going to aggressively explore how we can take full advantage of the new capabilities.”

Bolt Creative, however, isn't as pumped for iPad it seems. Bolt recently announced that its Pocket God game became the best selling paid iPhone app to date. Bolt founder Dave Castelnuovo commented, "I think it will extend the iPhone’s reach into the gaming industry but it will not be as important as the iPhone, at least not for a while. There are some issues with multi-touch that prevent it from becoming the perfect gaming machine. Not having the tactile feedback of real buttons makes it hard to get really immersed in a core gaming experience.  That said, developers will probably tune the touch interface to the point where gamers are more comfortable with it. People really resisted using a console for FPS games at first, we may see a similar path with the iPad." Ultimately, Bolt would like to see how the expensive iPad sells before it really dives into iPad development. "We are going to wait and see. We will probably add iPad specific support to future updates but the amount of time we spend on the iPad depends on their sales figures," he noted. 

So what have we learned? Similar to how the PSPgo seemed to be a boon for the PSP-3000, it would appear that the introduction of the iPad may actually do more to help the iPhone business.

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.