Epic Games, in co-operation with Chair Entertainment, brought us Infinity Blade, one of the most graphically impressive, no-compromise game on the App Store. Infinity Blade costs $9.99, and not only is it worth every penny, but for the price, it’s graphically equal to many games on modern consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360…. and Epic sees app games as possibly killing off consoles once and for all.
“If there’s anything that’s killing us [in the traditional games business] it’s dollar apps,” said Epic Games’ Mike Capps. “How do you sell someone a $60 game that’s really worth it … They’re used to 99 cents. As I said, it’s an uncertain time in the industry. But it’s an exciting time for whoever picks the right path and wins.”
I don’t know about that right now. Worrying about this might be premature. There’s a huge difference between a $60 game on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 and even an app as advanced as Infinity Blade. The bottom line is that right now, you’re just not going to get a cinematic experience on iOS, nor a AAA title dozens of hours of length. The hardware’s not right for it yet.
In the future, though? Who knows? The way mobile hardware is advancing, I could see it as overtaking consoles entirely within five years… and if Apple ever rolls out apps to the AppleTV, perhaps even less time than that.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
