New iPhones "on par with next-generation consoles" - Gibeau (EA)

[kitler53]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-09-11-ea-on-the-apple-watch-the-emergence-of-another-gaming-platform-is-compelling_4

Frank Gibeau and his team at EA Mobile spent their Tuesday like a lot of other tech enthusiasts: Grumbling about the quality of Apple's stream of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch reveal.

The group gathered en masse in a conference room, as it does with every Apple reveal, to watch a broadcast that faded in and out (and occasionally came through in Chinese). But while the rest of us were gnashing our teeth in frustration, the mobile teams were already riffing on ideas about what they could do with the technology being introduced.

"It was a good Christmas morning," said Gibeau after the conference had wrapped up. "We got a lot of the gifts we asked for. One key takeaway is that with the retina display and the improved processor, combined with the Metal [graphics] capabilities and 128 GB of memory, that gets you to a device that's on part with next-generation consoles. That's moving perfectly into our strike zone."

##snip##

Gibeau's claim that mobile gaming is becoming on par with next-generation consoles is likely to stir some debate - and a lot of doubters. And he clarifies that that's certainly not the case with every mobile device.

"In some combination of devices, we're kind of there," he says. "On others, it's a little hard. The thing about mobile is there are 60,000 flavors of handsets each year. Some are extraordinarily high performance - and given that you're looking at a small screen that's right in front of you, pound for pound, it's right there."

As proof, he points to a mobile prototype of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, which runs on mobile devices using Frostbite - and says he expects playable products using the company's premiere graphics engine "soon".

Also, he says, the constant iteration of the technology each year lets mobile continually close any gaps between the two technologies. That's why EA has put such a strong focus on mobile in recent years. Gibeau moved over from running the company's console game unit to mobile a little shy of a year ago. Mobile, Gibeau says, is in many ways the future of EA.

"If you look at the market... mobile has a strong growth path in front of it," he says. "Then you've got wearables on top of that. At EA, we look at it as an especially powerful strategic path for us. ... We've been a premium business - and we've been changing the company from the ground up to become a services business. We have an optimistic and profoundly bright view of the future because of this platform expansion in mobile."

[kitler53]

oi,.  i wish mobile would just die.   why would anyone want to play on online shooter like PvZ:GW on a phone?!?

[u4gReservoirDogs]

There are probably millions of "casual gamers" that would like that ... sadly.   

[Shinobi-san]

Interesting. I havent had a detail look into the innards of the new iPhone but i seriously doubt its on par with next gen consoles.  It would also be an engineering marvel, since neither AMD or Intel have managed to pull off that level of processing on such a small scale. Not that they are the best at doing that anyways.

I will post again once I've done some research, but sounds like battleship. Imo cutting edge mobiles are just about on par with last gen.

[Shinobi-san]

Just looked it up...there's some serious power in the A8 SoC :O

Not quite next gen, but certainly on par with last gen in terms of theoretical performance.

Keep in mind that Apple hasnt revealed the exact specs of the SoC, but based on previous SoC's we can assume its a PowerVR GPU and a Cyclone CPU. AS for what exact models, we don't know.

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

So the new iPhone has 8 gigs of vram? And the processing power to run uncharted 4 at 60fps? How long does the battery last? Like 20 mins?

[Dr. Pezus]

We hear this every year. *yawn*

[kitler53]

Just looked it up...there's some serious power in the A8 SoC :O

Not quite next gen, but certainly on par with last gen in terms of theoretical performance.

Keep in mind that Apple hasnt revealed the exact specs of the SoC, but based on previous SoC's we can assume its a PowerVR GPU and a Cyclone CPU. AS for what exact models, we don't know.

i think part of the equation is that consoles are targeting 1080p and phones can get away with what,..  200p?  i think that is what he means by the "pound for pound" comment.

still... buttons.

[Shinobi-san]

i think part of the equation is that consoles are targeting 1080p and phones can get away with what,..  200p?  i think that is what he means by the "pound for pound" comment.

still... buttons.

Phones have already adopted 1080p as standard though...with budget phones going for 720p. High end phones already have resolutions of over 1080p.

I'm not entirely sure what resolutions most games run in. But to be on par with current gen the resolution will need to be achieved as well.

In any case its pretty crazy what Apple has managed to achieve with their latest SoC. Completely annihilates anything else on the market.

[u4gReservoirDogs]

In any case its pretty crazy what Apple has managed to achieve with their latest SoC. Completely annihilates anything else on the market.

It won't be that long before Samsung passes Apple again, Samsung launches a new phone each week or month I think, Apple takes at least one year.
I'm still very happy with my Sony Experia Z on which I only play Marvel Puzzel Quest and (use) the Grepolis-app.

[Legend]

I like that they demonstrated it was on par with next gen buy running a game that's lite on graphics and runs fine on last gen.

[the-pi-guy]

I like that they demonstrated it was on par with next gen buy running a game that's lite on graphics and runs fine on last gen.

"It can also play Tetris at 1080p!!!  Even 60 fps!!  Xbox One can't even do that!"

[the-pi-guy]

Phones have made huge progress, but to say it's on par with next gen consoles is a bit crazy.

[Legend]

"It can also play Tetris at 1080p!!!  Even 60 fps!!  Xbox One can't even do that!"

Hehehe