“Apple Inc’s faster and sharper-looking new iPad is drawing the notice of the traditional video game industry, as developers are envisioning games for it that have more in common with the visceral 3D shooter ‘Call of Duty’ than ‘FarmVille,'” Liana B. Baker reports for Reuters. “The company is also setting itself up to take on Microsoft and Sony on their home turf of game consoles.”
“From Electronic Arts to ‘Crysis’ developers Crytek, industry executives are figuring out ways to migrate graphics-intensive so-called hardcore games to the iPad. Epic Games and Namco Bandai took the stage at Apple’s iPad unveiling this week to show off what they can do with an iPad that has a faster quad core processor,” Baker reports. “With more than 55 million iPads sold to date, including 15.43 million last quarter, the tablet is quickly catching up to the number of consoles on the market: the PlayStation 3 has sold 62 million units and Xbox 360 has moved more than 65 million units. That growing user base is drawing developers who want to see their games played on as many devices as possible.”
“‘Apple is definitely building their devices as if they care a lot about ‘triple-A’ games,’ said Mike Capps, president of Epic Games, the studio behind ‘Gears of War’ for consoles and ‘Infinity Blade’ for the iPad,” Baker reports. “Capps, who has appeared on stage at all three of Apple’s iPad launches, said he is trying to push the console manufacturers, Sony and Microsoft, to come out with more powerful devices so they do not get left behind. On Wednesday, he told the crowd in San Francisco the new iPad has better screen resolution and more memory than Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation.”
Baker reports, “Apart from the iPad, Apple’s fledgling TV product is also being watched closely by video game companies. Hudson Square analyst Dan Ernst said he doubts the iPad will affect console sales, but said an Apple TV with an app store could one day pose a viable threat.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]