As the founder of Electronic Arts, 3DO and Digital Chocolate, Trip Hawkins knows a thing or two about the business of games. Over the last 28 years, he's watched the industry move from console transition to console transition and become a legitimate mainstream entertainment market. In a new interview with Pocket Gamer, Hawkins shared his thoughts on the impact of Apple's new iPad.
While some analysts seem skeptical, and App Store developers are excited yet cautious, Hawkins is very enthusiastic. He believes that the iPad will ultimately lead to further expansion of the gaming audience. "The most important long-term impact of iPad and other tablets will be the expansion of the game market to include more 'Omni Gamers' who don't currently think of themselves as gamers. These will be consumers from all walks of life and they'll initially get a tablet instead of a laptop PC or DVD player and the next thing they know they'll be playing a game on Facebook and downloading apps," he said. "Tablet prices will drop rapidly as custom components get into high volume and there is greater supply and competition. As that happens, the video and browsing capability of a tablet will compete with the Sony PSP in the teen and young adult markets. In the pre-teen demographic the choice is really between the Nintendo DS and the iPod touch, but if tablets get low enough in price they'll also reach that market segment."
Hawkins also believes browser-based games will take off, in part thanks to iPad. He added, "Fundamentally we are going to see browser-based games make a giant leap in convenience and portability for a mass market of gamers. This will be especially great for games on social networks but will also enable a new category of disc-less streamed games of all kinds, again offering a new threshold in convenience."
IndustryGamers acknowledges that the iPad looks like a very sleek, cool device, but much like the PS3 at launch, we feel pricing is going to be a huge obstacle. As Hawkins alluded to above, once the cost of tablet components comes down, then we'll probably start seeing more widespread adoption.
