Why haven’t AAA games on mobile devices been a huge success? Millions of people love their Nintendo Switches, but they’re toasters compared to modern Android and especially iOS devices. With a cheap controller attachment you could provide a much better experience with these devices most people already own. I expected basically every AAA Switch port to come to iOS as well, but they haven’t.
Meanwhile, before IAP destroyed retail pricing of games, there were some, but now the devices can run great games, it's all IAP dross.
Braid, Civ VI, Disco Elysium, various others show the devices are fine. Genshin Impact shows a casual fan audience is there, most likely in my mind is: phone other than "Max" screens seems too small, and few people realize you can pair your favorite controller to an iPad. (Xbox Cloud Gaming works so well, it's confusing dedicated cloud players exist.)
On Android, Civ VI has pretty horrible reviews, largely around stability; I think the devices are fine, but I'm not sure I'd cite Civ VI as support for it.
Price anchoring, I suspect. Apparently, people simply won't accept mobile games at "game prices" ($20-60) instead of "mobile prices" ($0-3). I am the opposite, refusing to engage with anything freemium, but I am also in the clear minority.
1) Phone gamers seem happy with awful "f2p" games that they don't have to "pay" for; big-budget mobile games (Genshin Impact, Diablo Immortal) are still "f2p" because it makes a ton of money
2) Breakout hits on mobile (Angry Birds, etc.) are usually designed to be played on the go in short sessions, while AAA games usually aren't
3) Switch games come on physical cartridges, can be borrowed/lent/reold, and will keep working (except for online features) over years of firmware updates and hardware revisions
4) Nintendo primed the Switch pump with a stellar collection of exclusive first-party games (many inherited from the Wii U) that are rarely discounted; Apple Arcade is good but can't beat Mario/Zelda/Metroid/Pokémon/etc.
5) Switch offers seamless local multiplayer (Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros.) even with two joy-cons and no TV, fully offline gaming (game cards), and many other well-designed features (even the "parental" on-off button that shuts the console off when you hold it down.) Nintendo delivers what it always has, a terrific home (and handheld) gaming experience.
1. Switch gamers own phones, so with the right marketing could also be phone gamers.
3. I doubt this has a big impact given empirically my friends who own Switches buy everything though the digital store.
4. Apple has the billions to buy ports of every AAA game on release (not years after like Resident Evil) for years, and IMO they should (and combine it with a big marketing push).
5. That’s true, you won’t beat those features with a phone right now (though they’re within reach for a determined platform owner)
> 4. Apple has the billions to buy ports of every AAA game on release (not years after like Resident Evil) for years, and IMO they should (and combine it with a big marketing push).
They certainly do. I'm sure they've run the numbers to see how much it would help their bottom line, and the answer might be "not enough." They might also be looking at how Microsoft isn't having an easy time with Xbox (in spite of the popular [34M+ subscribers] and acclaimed Game Pass service, excellent consoles with a terrific AAA game library, exclusive franchises like Halo/Gears/Forza, and owning Bethesda, Blizzard, etc.)
For now, for better or for worse, Apple is making a ton of money from f2p and "mobile" games and doesn't seem to have much incentive to change its course. Every so often they say something about Mac gaming, Apple TV gaming, etc. but not much has changed.
Apple TV could be more competitive as game console, but so far it has been a hard sell for gaming because of 1) lack of system-seller platform exclusives (Apple Arcade is good but can't really compete with Sony and Nintendo's exclusives and franchises), 2) no high-quality game controller in the box, 3) (as you note) not enough recent AAA games.
Apple is dumping billions into Apple TV+ for exclusive shows, trying to compete against Netflix, Amazon, Disney etc.; they might be wary of investing heavily and directly in gaming when iOS gaming is still basically printing money (though the EU might be forcing some changes in Apple's business model.)
It seems like it should be easier to justify spending billions since it’s already printing money (and this segment currently gives them zero money). They could put all of the AAA ports they paid for last year on Apple Arcade as a start (since they sold like 10 units anyway), then once people are hooked introduce an Apple Arcade premium tier that promises a continued stream of more similar-grade ports of games released that year.
Unfortunately you’re right, Apple has a weird history of messing up and half-assing their triple-A approach (remember the Valve partnership? Or the ten years of outdated OpenGL? Etc). I wonder if they hired an exec who helped with the Epic Games Store or MS’s Gamepass or something they would be able to help.
