iPhone 15 Pro brings PS5 games to mobile – and it should worry Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo
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iPhone 15 Pro brings PS5 games to mobile – and it should worry Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo
Apple is taking gaming more seriously, and iPhone 15 Pro is a warning shot
If you’re an avid gamer – like me – the most exciting announcement from Apple’s big iPhone 15 launch event wasn’t the Apple Watch Series 9 or the new iPhone, which you can read about in our in-depth iPhone 15 Pro Max review. No, it was the surprise reveal that the new iPhone 15 Pro will soon be able to play some of the best PS5 games, natively, and will even support hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
If Apple’s announcement made me sit up with surprise, you can guarantee the top executives at Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will have also taken notice.
Apple’s renewed gaming push is significant. Games that were once reserved for consoles and PCs are now coming to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
It’s not just indie games or aging ports, either. Titles like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, and Death Stranding, will all receive native versions. And it means Apple’s promise of the iPhone being comparable to a home console is a reality at last.
Even though we’ve seen a greater push to mobile gaming thanks to the success of the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, the ability to play console-quality titles on your smartphone shouldn’t be dismissed.
While it’s easy to be skeptical of mobile games after years of predatory monetization and throw-away experiences, there’s no doubt the prospect of being able to access console-quality games on a smartphone is the ultimate end goal.
Smartphones have become a ubiquitous influence on our lives, and are no longer just a means of communicating with each other. But gaming has still felt like a missing piece in the puzzle.
Yes, we’ve seen successful mobile adaptations of popular games in recent years like Call of Duty Mobile, and even some like-for-like ports such as Stardew Valley. But those games tend to be limited in scope and scale from a graphical perspective. A quick look at the best Apple Arcade games is a testament to that fact.
Services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming have also arrived to fill in the gaps, allowing gamers to play titles that simply couldn’t run on smartphones or weaker hardware. However, cloud gaming isn’t perfect by any means, and comes with more than a few concessions like increased input lag and reduced image quality. You need a fast and stable internet connection to get the most out of it, too.
Even Sony is looking to offer consumers a way to play its games away from the PS5 with PlayStation Portal, though instead of relying on cloud streaming, it uses Remote Play to deliver a similar, albeit more restrictive experience.
A native gaming experience will always be preferable, though, and if Apple can deliver comparable ports that aren’t a dramatic departure from what gamers expect on PS5 and Xbox Series X, this could be a seminal moment in the gaming industry. We’ve seen Switch ports of ambition titles do incredibly well, even with some noticeable cutbacks to performance and visuals.
After all, there are an estimated three billion mobile gamers across the globe, and while not all of them will pick up an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, we’ll likely see the ability to play console-quality games trickle down to Apple’s standard iPhone models in the near future. Once that happens, Apple’s gaming push will finally be in full effect.
Naturally, there are some question marks on how games like Resident Evil 4 will run on iPhone. Battery life will likely take a significant hit, and a 6.7-inch screen probably isn’t the optimal way to experience these big-screen titles. Controls will also be an issue, and will likely require a Bluetooth controller like the Backbone One to really shine. But is that enough to deter people from playing Assassin’s Creed Mirage on a device that fits in their pocket? I don’t think so.
Pricing will also be an important factor. If Resident Evil Village is $70 on the App Store, will people pick it up over the console version? Perhaps, but full-priced games haven’t sold well historically on mobile – though they haven’t really been comparable to the console versions, to be fair. The rise of subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus has also changed the perceived value of purchasing new games at launch.
However, those questions aside, I’m excited to experience some of the biggest Xbox and PS5 games on an iPhone. With the Nintendo Switch 2 due to launch towards the end of 2024, its stiffest competition might not come from Sony or Microsoft, or even Valve. It could be Apple’s iPhone Pro 15, iPhone Pro 15 Max, and future iPhone models. And Apple will worry Nintendo far more than anyone else.
Needless to say, things just got a lot more interesting in the mobile gaming space.