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[Eddie-Griffin]

https://www.shacknews.com/article/134242/everything-seen-gaming-at-apple-dev-showcase

We were recently invited to a Gaming at Apple Dev Showcase event, during which we saw a number of games available on Apple platforms. From the already available LEGO Star Wars Castaways, to upcoming releases like Honkai: Star Rail from HoYoverse, here’s a look at all of the highlights from Apple’s recent Dev Showcase event!

Honkai: Star Rail​

Described as a “silkpunk” adventure, Honkai: Star Rail marks the miHoYo’s first foray into turn-based combat. Not only does the game look visually stunning on Apple platforms like iPad, it promises a wealth of content from three initial planets to explore, dozens of characters to get acquainted with, and other features including dazzling music and the promise of regular update support similar to what miHoYo has already been doing with Genshin Impact. For more on Honkai: Star Rail, be sure to give our preview a read!

LEGO Star Wars Castaways​

LEGO Star Wars Castaways is one that’s already available on Apple platforms via Apple Arcade, and one we quickly found ourselves hooked on when testing it out on Apple TV. For those unfamiliar, the game boasts a wealth of content including a totally new LEGO Star Wars story that sees players fixing corrupted archives on a mysterious island.

With this setup, players can relive classic Star Wars moments by running through simulations with other activities on offer including being able to create your own custom LEGO Star Wars character, race ships like the X-Wing, engage in a variety of hub world activities with your friends online, interact with unique NPCs, and more. Trust us when we say that this one’s a must-play not only for LEGO and Star Wars fans, but anyone looking for something to dump hours and hours of time into. For more on LEGO Star Wars Castaways, head over to the game’s official website.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile​

Great news for Call of Duty fans looking to play Warzone on-the-go, particularly on Apple platforms like iPhone, as we got to see the game running impressively well on mobile devices. As confirmed by the team during the Gaming at Apple Dev Showcase, Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile was built expressly for mobile with optimized movement, aiming, weapon handling, physics and more.

It supports up to 120 live players, customized mobile content including mobile-specific events and custom playlists, synchronous cross-play play across iOS and Android, cross-progression, and the return of the fan-favorite Verdansk map. Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is set to release on iOS and Android devices sometime later this year. To prepare for the release, pre-registration is currently open. For more on Call of Duty: Mobile and to pre-register, head over to the game’s official website.

Run Legends​

We love indies here at Shacknews and were excited to be able to play one at the Gaming at Apple Dev Showcase event that’s currently being developed by the team at Talofa Games called Run Legends. Run Legends is described as the “first-ever fitness game that you can play synchronously with your friends, no matter where they are in the world.”

We tested the game on iPhone with our movement controlling the actions of our characters, with quicker movements like running unleashing attacks, to slower movements doing things like restoring health. Missions are done in short intervals between 5 to 15 minutes, with the ability to play hands free thanks to an announcer called an Operator calling out you and your team’s actions. We had a lot of fun with this one, and if you’re curious to try it yourself, registration for the game’s Open Beta is currently open. For more on Run Legends, or to sign up for the Open Beta, be sure to check out the official website for Talofa Games.

The Medium on Mac​

Bloober Team have been incredibly busy as of late with the company not only working on a highly anticipated remake of Silent Hill 2 along with the previously announced Layers of Fears, but it’s also bringing games like The Medium to Mac. We had the opportunity to demo The Medium on Mac and found that despite intense graphics including dual reality split-screen rendering two scenes simultaneously, with Marianne in both the real world and spirit realm, the game runs impressively well on the platform. The Medium is set to release on Macs with Apple silicon sometime later this summer. For more on The Medium on Mac, be sure to check out Bloober Team’s latest announcement trailer.

Overall, gaming on Apple devices has never looked better with a smorgasbord of content to play now like LEGO Star Wars Castaways, or look forward to in the future like Honkai: Star Rail and Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. Looking for more on Apple? Check out some of our previous coverage on topics including Apple’s reveal of its M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, and Apple announcing new user data protection features for iCloud and iMessage.

Apple had a private invite-only gaming event yesterday that many outlets are just reporting on today. It was to showcase that Apple products were the place to be for gaming. Even CNN was there, https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/electronics/new-apple-games-february-2023

Why Apple didn't make the event public and have a traditional showcase conference is not known since they didn't show anything really secretive or huge there. But Apple seems to be taking gaming more seriously now.

 

[Abriael_GN]

Apple products were the place to be for gaming.

Why Apple didn't make the event public and have a traditional showcase conference

Likely because they were too ashamed to publicly say something as mindbogglingly stupid as what I quoted above.

Apple seems to be taking gaming more seriously now.

Apple products are literally the last place you want to be if you want to do any gaming besides being preyed upon by gacha as the main "gameplay" mechanic (and even if you love that, Android's better).

 

[FingerBang]

The power is definitely there, but this is still way to little to even consider Mac a viable gaming platform.

 

[Abriael_GN]

The power is definitely there, but this is still way to little to even consider Mac a viable gaming platform.

Power is useless to serious gaming if it doesn't come paired with at least decent pricing, and that would require Apple to completely reverse its policies.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Interesting that they even had this event. Seems like they're really ramping up the importance of gaming, when before it felt like they only fell into it accidentally with the iOS app store. But mobile games seem to have been flat for years and 90% just don't have that meat of an AAA game I wanted, despite any newish iPhone being way more powerful than the Switch.

I just want Tim Apple to swing some of that massive bag of cash they're spending on dividends, into a fund to port AAA native first class Metal 3 Apple Silicon games

 

[FingerBang]

Power is useless to serious gaming if it doesn't come paired with at least decent pricing, and that would require Apple to completely reverse its policies.

The current Mac lineup is priced reasonably. If you ignore the pro stuff, you have both the Mac mini and the MacBook air below $1000.

 

[Abriael_GN]

The current Mac lineup is priced reasonably. If you ignore the pro stuff, you have both the Mac mini and the MacBook air below $1000.

You're gonna play some really neat 2D indie games with these.

8 GB of total Ram lol.

For that hardware, $1,000 is a ludicrous price. Asking $230 for 8 additional gigs of RAM is absolutely hilarious.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Power is useless to serious gaming if it doesn't come paired with at least decent pricing, and that would require Apple to completely reverse its policies.

Rumor is Honkai: Star Rail is 4K 60fps with HDR.

That's going to justify the 32GB of RAM in a future Iphone that wants to run that at 120fps with whiter blacks without the crush, and more vibrant color range for the upcoming Iphones. Likely the base model will only be $999, Pro $1000, Max $1200.

 

[Abriael_GN]

Rumor is Honkai: Star Rail is 4K 60fps with HDR.

Honkai Star Rail is as visually demanding as a mid-tier mobile game (which it is, and it's turn-based, which means that framerate is nearly irrelevant).

That's a hilarious choice to make underpowered, overpriced hardware falsely look appealing, really.

Incidentally, the idea of "4K" on a smartphone-sized screen may sound good for a non-gamer who doesn't even know what 4K means, perhaps.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Honkai Star Rail is as visually demanding as a mid-tier mobile game (which it is, and it's turn-based, which means that framerate is nearly irrelevant).

That's a hilarious choice to make underpowered, overpriced hardware falsely look appealing, really.

Incidentally, the idea of "4K" on a smartphone-sized screen may sound good for a non-gamer who doesn't even know what 4K means, perhaps.

https://9to5mac.com/2023/02/17/apple-event-gaming-iphone-mac/

Apple holds press event showing off its ‘latest advances in gaming’

See the problem is, you don't want gaming to advance.

From CNN,

Activision’s latest bite-sized Call of Duty game looked great and ran at a fluid 120 frames per second on an iPhone 14 Pro Max — Apple’s current top-end phone — though it’s optimized to run well on the last few generations of iPhone. I did notice that the handset got warm during my playtime, and even more concerning, the game fully crashed near the end of an intense match. Activision was quick to point out that we were playing pre-release software, so hopefully these bugs get ironed out to avoid any accidental trips to the gulag.

This shows that AAA mobile gaming is too far along for even the current top phones, AAA mobile gaming needs "advanced" hardware for "advanced" gaming.

Games like Warzone and Run Legends need hardware near as strong as PS5/XBS to run.

Apple is showcasing they have the tech for the price, and is finally evolving gaming out of the stone age. They are bringing us experience we were never able to play before, by simply having the best gam-



Ok ok, it's a bare minimum shit mobile-upscale invite-only event that Apple made secret to create hype for Mac gaming just like what Google did with Chromebooks months ago, lol. It's not really the "place to be" for gaming.

But it worked, Apple managed to impress a lot of the press, which casuals will eat up as they read the glowing previews for all the Mac gaming stuff.

 

[Abriael_GN]

But it worked, Apple managed to impress a lot of the press

LOL which press? You could impress CNN and their ilk with a cardboard box and a dude doing shadows behind a paper screen. Their gaming coverage is a few levels below mainstream.

This is exactly what apple has been doing forever. Mostly mobile stuff that has very little to do with gaming, that only ultra-casuals care about. They already have that market and there's nothing new under the sun.

See the problem is, you don't want gaming to advance.

The most backward company in the electronics market is literally the least viable candidate to make gaming advance. If anything, it's the opposite.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

The biggest problem with Apple gaming is the lack of support for industry standard APIs like Vulcan, DirectX12 and OpenGl. There aren't a lot of devs optimising for Metal.

I suspect that Apple intends for their VR platform to intice developers to use Metal, but I think it would be much easier for everyone if Apple just joined the Kronos Group and contribute to or fork Vulcan instead.

What does Metal do that Vulcan can't?

 

[OmegaSupreme]

The medium

 

[DemonGamerTTT]

Mid AF.

 

[alphachino]

I'm a massive Apple fanboy and have been since pre-iPod and I think everything there looks utter shit and I wouldn't waste time, energy or money on any of it. It's a shame development resources are being thrown away on such tripe.

 

[poppabk]

The event title is an oxymorom.

 

[diffusionx]

Apple products are literally the last place you want to be if you want to do any gaming besides being preyed upon by gacha as the main "gameplay" mechanic (and even if you love that, Android's better).

Isn't the whole point of Apple Arcade that it gets away from all the gacha?

 

[Pasta la Vista]

BRB loading up on puts.

 

[Baki]

Interesting that they even had this event. Seems like they're really ramping up the importance of gaming, when before it felt like they only fell into it accidentally with the iOS app store. But mobile games seem to have been flat for years and 90% just don't have that meat of an AAA game I wanted, despite any newish iPhone being way more powerful than the Switch.

I just want Tim Apple to swing some of that massive bag of cash they're spending on dividends, into a fund to port AAA native first class Metal 3 Apple Silicon games

Gaming is a huge money maker for Apple

 

[Robb]

Looking at what was shown I only feel sorry for the people who had to attend and waste their time on this.

 

[Fredrik]

Power is useless to serious gaming if it doesn't come paired with at least decent pricing, and that would require Apple to completely reverse its policies.

Apple TV is relatively cheap and so is Apple Arcade, if they can keep updating that platform and get more games like Fantasian it’ll be a nice trojan horse to get people to put down their phone and try living room gaming on what they assumed was a Netflix box.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Underestimate Apple at your own peril. Their hardware and chips as well as lower hardware resources required to do great things visually and on their amazing screens is going to grow fast. The library will catch up, you want to talk about Sony/Ninty out marketing Xbox, just wait until Apple really turn it on and with some heavy hitting games. The kings of tech marketing will move out of just mobile gaming.

Then along comes controllers and screen output to rival console releases. Apple have a huge fan and install base. Mobile will overlap traditional consoles eventually, how long that takes to become reality is the question. When, not if.

Look out if Apple decides to open its warchest of hundreds of billions, in cash no less.

 

[HofT]

Underestimate Apple at your own peril. Their hardware and chips as well as lower hardware resources required to do great things visually and on their amazing screens is going to grow fast. The library will catch up, you want to talk about Sony/Ninty out marketing Xbox, just wait until Apple really turn it on and with some heavy hitting games. The kings of tech marketing will move out of just mobile gaming.

Then along comes controllers and screen output to rival console releases. Apple have a huge fan and install base. Mobile will overlap traditional consoles eventually, how long that takes to become reality is the question. When, not if.

Look out if Apple decides to open its warchest of hundreds of billions, in cash no less.

In the end, it's only about the games, not so much the hardware.

 

[Ar¢tos]

Phone gaming isn't gaming..... It's a distraction for people waiting in lines or doctor's offices...
I rather read Wikipedia while I wait, at least I always learn something.

 

[Lasha]

Phone gaming isn't gaming..... It's a distraction for people waiting in lines or doctor's offices...
I rather read Wikipedia while I wait, at least I always learn something.

Mobile is the primary platform for most of the world. Especially young people. Phones are powerful enough now to offer experiences equivalent to traditional gaming.

 

[Mung]

Incoming Verge headline: 'Apple invents gaming!'

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Power is useless to serious gaming if it doesn't come paired with at least decent pricing, and that would require Apple to completely reverse its policies.

Not really, they have their user base and Apple think they'll be able to sell them games.

Would I buy a Mac to play games? No.
Do I have a Mac and would I consider buying games for it? Yes.

The games they showed? ...no.

 

[GymWolf]

So to sum up the "gaming" showcase:

 

[SLB1904]

Likely because they were too ashamed to publicly say something as mindbogglingly stupid as what I quoted above.





Apple products are literally the last place you want to be if you want to do any gaming besides being preyed upon by gacha as the main "gameplay" mechanic (and even if you love that, Android's better).

This dude has some hilarious takes ill give him that

 

[Deaconstanjesusman]

I’m an apple user but have a ps5 for games. If they had games like Sony first party library, I’d be interested. But I’m not interested in mobile games

 

[X-Wing]

Apple Arcade is actually pretty good, Apple is slowly but steadily increasing its presence in the gaming world. Fun times ahead.

 

[KungFucius]

Power is useless to serious gaming if it doesn't come paired with at least decent pricing, and that would require Apple to completely reverse its policies.

C'mon. The most expensive Mac Pro is only 60k. A gaming Mac targeted to mainstream Mac fanatics will start at a measly 10k and have an option to have RGB Apple logos everywhere for only 500 more.

 

[Radical_3d]

I don’t know what did I expected from the comments in an Apple news post in a gaming forum but serves me well.

 

[Raonak]

Underestimate Apple at your own peril. Their hardware and chips as well as lower hardware resources required to do great things visually and on their amazing screens is going to grow fast. The library will catch up, you want to talk about Sony/Ninty out marketing Xbox, just wait until Apple really turn it on and with some heavy hitting games. The kings of tech marketing will move out of just mobile gaming.

Then along comes controllers and screen output to rival console releases. Apple have a huge fan and install base. Mobile will overlap traditional consoles eventually, how long that takes to become reality is the question. When, not if.

Look out if Apple decides to open its warchest of hundreds of billions, in cash no less.

??? Sony/Nintendo don't outmarket Xbox. They straight up outplay them by making far superior games. That's what is always the key. The games are king.

If Apple starts getting it's own lineup of first party studios that are managed well, maybe they'll one day catch up. The reality is that Apple is just gonna rely on making deals with third party developers, which will greatly reduce any reason to get it when the games will just end up coming out on every other platform in a few months.

"Mobile will overlap traditional consoles eventually" is a completely outdated mindset that comes from 2008-era thought of mobile gaming overtaking every. What's been proven is that these are completely different userbases. There is no overlapping. PC/Console/Mobile appeal to completely different types of gamers depending on the level of convenience vs compromise.

If microsoft's massive warchest hasn't made the xbox succeed, then apple has little to no chance. Even apple cares about profits first and foremost, and they will pivot when they can't seem to produce profits in the gaming sector.

 

[nemiroff]

Depressing AF.

Disclaimer: I'm a former Apple fanboy.

 

[midnightAI]

Underestimate Apple at your own peril. Their hardware and chips as well as lower hardware resources required to do great things visually and on their amazing screens is going to grow fast. The library will catch up, you want to talk about Sony/Ninty out marketing Xbox, just wait until Apple really turn it on and with some heavy hitting games. The kings of tech marketing will move out of just mobile gaming.

Then along comes controllers and screen output to rival console releases. Apple have a huge fan and install base. Mobile will overlap traditional consoles eventually, how long that takes to become reality is the question. When, not if.

Look out if Apple decides to open its warchest of hundreds of billions, in cash no less.

Yes, you just wait until Apple unleashes it's first party development teams with its must have IPs and it's massive experience of developing games and gaming hardware.

Bring on the Pippin 2

 

[FingerBang]

You're gonna play some really neat 2D indie games with these.

8 GB of total Ram lol.

For that hardware, $1,000 is a ludicrous price. Asking $230 for 8 additional gigs of RAM is absolutely hilarious.

No, you don't play only 2D indie games with a M2 and you obviously don't buy a Mac just for gaming.

You people with your hate bones for companies are ridiculous. There's a bunch of macs out there that people use professionally and they're not all max spec MacBook Ultra. With good support people would be able to use them for gaming.

Also, stop acting like PC gaming is all 4090s and i9, cause it's not. Plenty of master racetards with GPU less powerful than an M2

 

[Abriael_GN]

Underestimate Apple at your own peril. Their hardware and chips as well as lower hardware resources required to do great things visually and on their amazing screens is going to grow fast. The library will catch up, you want to talk about Sony/Ninty out marketing Xbox, just wait until Apple really turn it on and with some heavy hitting games. The kings of tech marketing will move out of just mobile gaming.

Then along comes controllers and screen output to rival console releases. Apple have a huge fan and install base. Mobile will overlap traditional consoles eventually, how long that takes to become reality is the question. When, not if.

Look out if Apple decides to open its warchest of hundreds of billions, in cash no less.

Do you know who has a lot of money? Microsoft.

Guess who's dead last in the gaming competition?

No one's in any peril here. Apple's problem isn't money. It's know-how and attitude. They have neither and they've never been interested in understanding the actual gaming market to acquire either. Their philosophy has always been to force the customer to adapt to them (the whole "think different" crapola), instead of pursuing what the customer wants, and gamers aren't going to have any of that.

No, you don't play only 2D indie games with a M2 and you obviously don't buy a Mac just for gaming

Sub-$1000 is all M1 crap.

People who can afford apple computers that are decent for gaming can afford a decent gaming machine that would give them an exponentially better experience.

Apple has deserved every bit of the "hate" it gets. The last thing gaming needs is such a shit company to get involved more than it already is.

 

[FingerBang]

Sub-$1000 is all M1 crap.

People who can afford apple computers that are decent for gaming can afford a decent gaming machine that would give them an exponentially better experience.

Apple has deserved every bit of the "hate" it gets. The last thing gaming needs is such a shit company to get involved more than it already is.

Not everyone buys an expensive computer just for gaming. There are plenty of reasons to have a powerful mac, adding games to it would be an incentive for people to buy a mac for both productivity and gaming instead of buying both.

Apple does a lot of shitty things, the latest mac lineup is not one of those. The Mac Mini is 599 with an M2, and the pro version is 1299. Those are priced reasonably for what they offer.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Guess who's dead last in the gaming competition?

Dead last when home consoles only have two contenders is a bit silly of a statement.

??? Sony/Nintendo don't outmarket Xbox. They straight up outplay them by making far superior games.

Nintendo is in a separate market segment, and Sony has done their share of MS strategy with throwing money around to benefit their lead, which MS has only started doing in the gaming space with significant cash from 2016. Even then Sony still sometimes beats them to the punch.

But yes, Apple is hasn't put effort in gaming since the early 90s.

Isn't the whole point of Apple Arcade that it gets away from all the gacha?

Yeah, it was supposed to create a 'safer environment" for players to avoid predatory stuff, I think it was originally meant for kids and college peeps.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Thoroughly uninteresting in every way.

 

[hybrid_birth]

i can see it now Buy the iPlay! Only $1,300. Controllers are only $399.

I doubt Apple will ever enter the console market.