Thoughts on the iPad...

I've been getting a lot of questions about the iPad, mainly asking me to forecast the date in which it will revolutionize gaming, reasoning that since the iPhone revolutionized gaming the iPad will certainly do it, too.

First of all, the iPhone did not revolutionize gaming. If anything, it legitimized mobile phone gaming because before it came along mobile gaming was at best a mediocre experience that few people in the US participated in and even fewer actually paid for. Sure, in Europe and Japan where cell phones have always been ahead of the US, mobile gaming was more popular but by no means was it a multi-billion dollar industry.

So the iPhone comes along and somewhere in 2009 the buzz about gaming on the platform reached to the point where consultants' heads started spinning about how may trillions of dollars per nanosecond consumer would spend on gaming apps. While it is true that of the nearly 200,000 iPhone apps ever created (current actual number is about 196k as of 4/6/2010), roughly half of them are games. But there is a ton of piracy on the platform and consumers aren't spending quite as much as we would have hoped, given that many of them only dip their toes in paid apps.

Let's put spending question aside and for now, focus on actual usage. The iPhone essentially allowed consumers to play games in all sorts of places that they simply could not before. Before you argue about the DS and PSP, think for a minute about the overlap of DS or PSP owners and cell phone owners. The former are mainly used by kids and teens, respectively, and they are less likely to own cell phones (erm...younger teens aren't as likely). For non handheld gamers, or at least those who don't carry their portable systems everywhere, you can bet they are much more likely to take their cell phones with them wherever they go. So by this rough logic the iPhone has allowed consumers to play games in places they normally had not in the past such as: waiting rooms, public transportation, weddings, funerals, piano recitals, board meetings, the 405 freeway in Los Angeles and most of all...on the toilet.

In other words, the iPhone is extremely portable and you'll take it everywhere anyway. And you can hold it in one hand and play with one thumb, even though most people hold it with one hand and play with a finger on the other hand.

The iPad, however, lacks the same degree of portability and physical usability due to it's weight. When I finally got to try it out over this week the 1.5 pounds felt much heavier than I had expected. Sure, it is way lighter than my laptop, but compared the iPhone it is much more cumbersome and really requires more strength to hold and operate. Along with the larger screen size, this makes the iPad a much different gaming platform than the iPhone, and that does not necessarily mean it will be better.

What it means is that gaming on the iPad will be somewhat different than on the iPhone. With that consider the following:

1) The iPad is less portable so you won't use it in as many places as your iPhone. Yes, you may take it everywhere but you simply can't use it in as many places.

2) Wi-Fi dependency and luxury class cost of 3G access (forget about the hardware cost of the 3G bersion) will inhibit use where internet is not accessible. Think of this as a constraint, not a line item veto. People will still take the iPad to wherever but not having internet access will make the device slightly annoying. This will make gaming on it just slightly, slighty annoying

3) iPad-only games better take advantage of the screen size and processing power. Can we get some clever 3D games and not just mostly 2D with 3D-esque games like on the iPhone? I'm not talking about 3D movie style 3D, but thinks like Doom and Quake 3D.

4) True first person shooters will still be pointless on the iPad, just like they are on the iPhone due to lack of buttons and physical controls. Sure you can hook up a wireless keyboard and mouse, but serioiusly, if I am going to game on it I'm not really going to want to do that since I already have a computer and I might as well play that RTS or MMO game on that and not the iPad.

5) RTS games, while requiring some retooling, might actually be interesting on an iPad. You'd need to rethink the controls but the top down mouse controls from the PC could be converted in some innovative touch interface. Blizzard, I'm looking at you to bring Warcraft III to the iPad.

6) While shooter games will probably still suck, perhaps 3rd person action games could be interesting on the iPad given the larger screen size might allow for enough screen area for innovative controls that are not possible on the iPhone.

7) Purse manufacturers will start making iPad friendly designs. One example: http://www.padster.net/padster___iPad_bag.html I don't know how this will impact gaming but it is worth mentioning.