IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Gears of War Could Go Mobile in Future

Posted June 30, 2010 by James Brightman

The iPhone gaming business has been a rousing success, with more and more developers popping up everyday to get a piece of the App Store market. The newly launched iPad, with its large, clear screen, has made App Store development even more appealing for many. Although these platforms are not as powerful as a high-end console, they will be in the not-so-distant future. Epic Games VP Mark Rein recently demonstrated Unreal engine prototypes running on iPhone, iPad and Android, and he believes that mobile devices such as these represent a large component of Epic's future.

Speaking on a panel at the GameHorizon event, Rein commented, "These are the consoles of the future." He added that if mobile phone power doubled "even two more times, you can play Gears of War on this." Imagine that - playing a high-end console game like Gears in the palm of your hand. We sure would like to see it happen.

Rein also talked about free-to-play versus more traditional triple-A titles. "I'd rather sell 10 million games at $25 and have a chance to sell DLC than 5 million at $50 on a disc that gets traded around," he said. "I think it'll change, and it'll change for the benefit of the customers. We're definitely going to experiment with micro-transcations and lower-price games."

That doesn't mean big triple-A games will become extinct, however. Rein added, "I'm a big proponent of AAA games. Triple-A isn't going away, it's going everywhere. As the quality of the games go up, the cost of the games go up, you're going to have to monetise them better."

[Thanks GI.biz]

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.