Gaming On the iPad 2 and What It Means For Apple

The Digital Foundry blog took a detailed look at gaming on Apple's recently released iPad 2. While most reviews of the device focus on the tablet's size, accessories and software features, this one puts the new A5 processor through its paces, finding "anything from a 4x to 7x leap over what was seen in the original version of the tablet." The authors suggest that it has boosted mobile gaming to a point where Apple could be preparing for a much bigger entrance into the gaming market. "Either we are looking at a company looking to consolidate its iron grip on the mobile games market by combining its existing unparalleled developer support with state-of-the-art technology, or else iPad 2 represents the first stages of a plan to expand iOS' reach from mobile phones and MP3 players through to tablets and perhaps in the near future, home games consoles. ... Technical and hardware challenges aside, there's no doubt whatsoever that Apple is extremely well-placed to expand its reach in the games market and launch a new, disruptive assault on the status quo every bit as effective as its mobile offerings have been. There have been plenty of creditable attempts at claiming the multi-purpose set-top box market, but there has been no outright winner. Arguably, Apple has the brand presence, the games, and the music/video services to actually make it happen."

Not an all in one solution

[Andtalath]

Gaming boxes are poorly equipped to be a general solution for loads of reasons.
Also, the margins on a machine that is just used for games can't be as high as apple likes to sell its hardware.

The real question is whether people will care about high-performance gaming or not, if so, apple is an equal competitor with an already functioning market.

So, no, a console has too many requirements to behave in the same fashion for a long while to suit apples needs.

No buttons, no deal

[Coolhand2120]

Without the traditional set of buttons, a joystick and for FPSers a mouse it's really a non-starter. Pressing virtual buttons on the screen will never be as satisfying or as technically accurate (a big deal for video games) as a physical button/stick/mouse. If you were to add the buttons, a mouse and/or a joystick the lovely touchscreen becomes a regular monitor and is ill suited to deal with the dedicated gaming rigs (laptop or desktop) and won't be much competition for the next gen gaming consoles, even more so when you consider these newer gaming consoles will be running 1080p on a 60" 3D screen. You may have some weekend gamers pick up a bubble buster game or two in lieu of reading a book or watching TV but hardcore gamers will never touch it.