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With the new RE4R Iphone announcement, i feel more than ever that the 2020s will be the decade of the handheld gamer

RoboFu

One of the green rats
No, not really, these games aren't made for mobile gaming, and I don't mean anything like graphics or controls, but the way they are structured doesn't fit mobile.
Unless they change these games so you can save literally at any moment, it's just going to be a dreadful experience all around.
Huh? Lol so the switch and steam deck are horrible experiences now. 😵‍💫
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
Huh? Lol so the switch and steam deck are horrible experiences now. 😵‍💫
? What are you talking about, those are dedicated gaming devices that are built for mobile gaming, which allow them to perfectly suspend a game whenever the fuck you want, phones kill applications suspended in the background if they need the memory; why would you even compare the two.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
They can still sleep and quick resume like a Switch or Deck though.
No they can't, because unlike phones, the gaming devices aren't used for anything else so they don't kill the game that's suspended for no reason.
If you're in a game not sure why you'd be opening up other applications unless you're looking for a guide.
It's a phone...so
the dude your opinion GIF
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Only GAF doesn't know that the 2010's were already the decade of the handheld gamer
i mean, i guess. Phones were more popular even then but they weren't getting the quality.

Back in the 2010s portables still didn't touch home hardware to the same extent they do now. pretty much no game out on console at the time was arriving to smartphone, or handheld consoles. 3DS got no games from console with the exception of like, Street Fighter 4 (which looks worse than the version running on 2005 hardware) and Metal Gear Solid 3 (which ran worse than the version running on 2001 hardware), and Vita was stuck on getting PS3 games (and not even much of those). You weren't playing Metal Gear Solid 5, The Order 1886 or Titanfall 2 on a Galaxy S6. We're closer to that reality now than ever, though.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
This is a pretty cool opinion! But i have to remind you...

Mobile gaming has been the leading platform for a while yes. But this thread isn't just about mobile. It's about portables as a whole. The age of smaller scale games made specifically for handheld is over. We're now entering an era where handheld systems have close to what the consoles can offer while being portable. The Switch started this, the Deck kicked it into high gear, and the Iphone is going to make it mainstream.

Even after re-reading this, I feel that you're giving bizarre credit to console-chasing graphics on the iPhone, as if that will somehow create a market for handheld gaming... when handheld gaming has been on fire for decades now, and if anything the "just port your console games to a $1,000 phone" concept looks like it sets the medium back rather than propelling or making it "mainstream" in any way.

Handheld gaming thrives when it uniquely plays to the strengths of portability, not when it tries to let you move your PS5 games to the tiny screen and awkward attach a console controller. I've considered buying a Steam Deck for instance (already have a couple Switches) but decidedly not to play things like Elden Ring. I'd want one to play Steam's fantastic catalog of smaller and indie games, which really can thrive on portable screens--which is why Nintendo has courted indie games lately as well.

RE4R on mobile doesn't look like a step forward in any way to me. It's exactly what I'd prefer to keep off of the minds of consumers when they think about portable gaming.

This thread is about mobile gaming finally not being a joke of a platform where 90% of the games nickel and dime you, an actual platform where people can genuinely play and enjoy AAA quality, Indie, all sorts of games on. It's about handheld gaming systems finally getting the 'real thing', not having stripped down console ports or completely different games anymore.

This is the saddest take IMO. The best handheld games of all times were the ones that went a different direction from their larger counterparts. Donkey Kong '94, Mario Tennis GBA, any of the brilliant titles on the DS, etc.

And "joke of a platform where 90% of the games nickel and dime you"... that's a mobile phone thing. Dedicated handhelds offered fantastic quality, it's just the absolutely abysmal mobile games that have been a horrific waste of time and money for so long. Which is why "iPhone should lead portable gaming" is the worst possible sentiment, I can't think of any worse influence on the handheld market.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
No they can't, because unlike phones, the gaming devices aren't used for anything else so they don't kill the game that's suspended for no reason.

It's a phone...so
the dude your opinion GIF

Wow name calling and all 😂 , I guess you don’t know that with Apple Arcade you resume playing on any device that has arcade and the game.. It uses iCloud to save and resume just like the consoles do.
 
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zeldaring

Banned
Devs aren't even catching up with what is presented to them as "next gen"

The costs of producing these games is insane. The studios that can (after years) leverage the console advantage can be counted on one hand.

That's mainly why mobile seems to be catching up. It's not the TFlops, it's the diminishing returns of graphics, hitting HARD.
Mean while elden ring can't even 60fps locked on ps5 lol.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Even after re-reading this, I feel that you're giving bizarre credit to console-chasing graphics on the iPhone, as if that will somehow create a market for handheld gaming..when handheld gaming has been on fire for decades now, and if anything the "just port your console games to a $1,000 phone" concept looks like it sets the medium back rather than propelling or making it "mainstream" in any way.
But i never said there wasn't a market for handheld gaming... I was just saying that we're now in an era where the gap between handheld and stationary has shrunken a lot to an extent we can play many modern AAA games on the go. The mainstream comment was referring to AAA console quality games on a handheld, not handhelds as a whole
Handheld gaming thrives when it uniquely plays to the strengths of portability, not when it tries to let you move your PS5 games to the tiny screen and awkward attach a console controller. I've considered buying a Steam Deck for instance (already have a couple Switches) but decidedly not to play things like Elden Ring. I'd want one to play Steam's fantastic catalog of smaller and indie games, which really can thrive on portable screens--which is why Nintendo has courted indie games lately as well.
opinion post necessitates opinion gif
the dude your opinion GIF

While some people have a hard time playing bigger games on a small screen, there are people like me who really like that idea. I wouldn't say something like Elden Ring in particular, as you can't even PAUSE that game. Games like GTA, Bayonetta, Trackmania, Spiderman, Batman, Control, or Forza Horizon 5 for example work far better in a portable setting than you really give it credit for & those can only really be played on consoles.

Also, RE4R being ported to Iphone doesn't just mean Iphone... it means Ipad as well. if you don't like the tiny screen that's a great option. And you're also forgetting that this is a native port, meaning that Capcom may have easily tweaked text to be easier to read and stuff in the game to stand out more.

Mean while elden ring can't even 60fps locked on ps5 lol.
that's an Elden Ring problem not a PS5 problem.
 
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The main difference between mobile/handheld and home consoles has never been about process nodes or anything else related to hardware advancements.

Errr... yes it is. It's what drives the biggest differences between these two platforms.

Instead, the difference is that a phone needs to fit the SoC into a 5W envelope, the Switch and Steam Deck need to fit into a 15W envelope, but the PS5 and XSeX can be out there blasting out 200W in power draw (and commensurate waste heat output). Of course a gaming PC has effectively no limit, which is why my 5800X3D with 3090 is out here pulling around 400W running full tilt.

That said, the phone is the one that gets updated every year, whereas the home console is updated once a decade. So mobile is able to advance at a more steady pace and if the home console is a weak generation (which the PS5 and XSeX absolutely are) then the mobile can quickly catch up with the home console even with the severe limitations in power draw imposed by the form factor.

So it's not about process node shrinks, but now it is... make up your mind.

In terms of future developments, everyone has a game plan for new lithography and substrates past doing EUV on silicon which is what current 3 nm is. Intel's 20A is an example of this. We will see the end of silicon substrates but whether we have a new substrate or just go to quantum computing first is unknown. It's a pretty exciting time in semiconductor research though!

There is no near-term, commercializeable, non-silicon-based substrate technology that doesn't still have major issues impeding development. Most are at the academic research level at best. Quantum computing is multiple decades away, plus not even a 1:1 replacement for the type of conventional computing technologies used in CPU and GPU microprocessors. Quantum computers are very very good at solving very specific types of problems. They are not universally applicable the way Von Neumann computers are.
 
Devs aren't even catching up with what is presented to them as "next gen"

The costs of producing these games is insane. The studios that can (after years) leverage the console advantage can be counted on one hand.

That's mainly why mobile seems to be catching up. It's not the TFlops, it's the diminishing returns of graphics, hitting HARD.

This I agree with.

But once the software does catch up, mobile will be left in the dust.
 

zeldaring

Banned
But i never said there wasn't a market for handheld gaming... I was just saying that we're now in an era where the gap between handheld and stationary has shrunken a lot to an extent we can play many modern AAA games on the go. The mainstream comment was referring to AAA console quality games on a handheld, not handhelds as a whole

opinion post necessitates opinion gif
the dude your opinion GIF

While some people have a hard time playing bigger games on a small screen, there are people like me who really like that idea. I wouldn't say something like Elden Ring in particular, as you can't even PAUSE that game. Games like GTA, Bayonetta, Trackmania, Spiderman, Batman, Control, or Forza Horizon 5 for example work far better in a portable setting than you really give it credit for & those can only really be played on consoles.

Also, RE4R being ported to Iphone doesn't just mean Iphone... it means Ipad as well. if you don't like the tiny screen that's a great option. And you're also forgetting that this is a native port, meaning that Capcom may have easily tweaked text to be easier to read and stuff in the game to stand out more.


that's an Elden Ring problem not a PS5 problem.
My point idconsoles are just starting to flex, and already struggling so unless you are fine with 30fps which looks like shit mobile will no be matching consoles.
 
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ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
I agree with OP. Modern newer phones and portable devices having marginal difference with new gen home console is no small feat. RE Village, a 2 years old high end AAA console game being ported to mobile phone with ray tracing and seemingly no drastic downgrade, is a major milestone.

As we know, console players thrive on convenience, and these portable/hybrid devices now extends that convenience factor by allowing players to bring their current gen AAA games everywhere to play everywhere. Even Playstation fans are warming up to the idea of playing AAA games on a small screen via PS Portal.

The next few years will be exciting.
 

supernova8

Banned
If they can really get RE4R running (good framerate and nice visuals) on iPhone 15 Pro then that just makes me wish (even more) that Apple released a dedicated gaming console.

Putting pricing aside for a moment (convenient, I know), their Apple silicon is clearly amazing. Plus their power efficiency was already amazing pre-Apple silicon (I remember getting like 8 hours battery life on my Macbook Air 2015 model when Windows laptops at the time had atrocious battery life). Just imagine what Apple could give us if they had the real estate of a PS5 or Xbox Series X, and imagine what kind of games we could get if developers went full on Apple-only.

Obviously if we bring price back in, it all falls apart. Alas... nevermind. I can dream!
 
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Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
What's the image of the DS for?

Mobile gaming has been the leading platform for a while yes. But this thread isn't just about mobile. It's about portables as a whole. The age of smaller scale games made specifically for handheld is over. We're now entering an era where handheld systems have close to what the consoles can offer while being portable. The Switch started this, the Deck kicked it into high gear, and the Iphone is going to make it mainstream.

This thread is about mobile gaming finally not being a joke of a platform where 90% of the games nickel and dime you, an actual platform where people can genuinely play and enjoy AAA quality, Indie, all sorts of games on. It's about handheld gaming systems finally getting the 'real thing', not having stripped down console ports or completely different games anymore.


If mobile gets true AAA games then it is "real gaming" lol. phones get the games the "real" systems have.

Because of the popularity of handhelds you are still gonna get those nickel and dime games, whether on Steam or on Android/iOS.
Hell the eshop is filled with trash not dissimilar to the playstore.

My point was calling it the decade of the handheld gaming is kinda silly when handheld gaming has been super popular forever and has had legit games going way way back, alot of people dismiss games like Genshin Impact and Punishing Gray Raven but those are legit legit titles, that if they launch on console initially would easily pass as having been console first titles.

Is the quality better....sure, but home console game quality goes up gen on gen, sure this gen hasnt had its RDR2 moment yet, but im sure GTA will be that moment.
Are we gonna call it the decade of home console gaming?
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Devs aren't even catching up with what is presented to them as "next gen"

The costs of producing these games is insane. The studios that can (after years) leverage the console advantage can be counted on one hand.

That's mainly why mobile seems to be catching up. It's not the TFlops, it's the diminishing returns of graphics, hitting HARD.

That’s the thing, we’re already hitting an economic ceiling… mobile hardware is not yet up to that but soon will be and at that point more powerful hardware will be useless.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Which is why "iPhone should lead portable gaming" is the worst possible sentiment, I can't think of any worse influence on the handheld market.
I am not saying it should lead portable gaming. I'm saying that it getting big games is a result of the improving handhelds over the past 3 years.

And again... it's your opinion that the best handheld games of all time are games made for the system. But there's a reason why games like RDR2 and Elden Ring get more talk than Elite Beat Agents...
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
That’s the thing, we’re already hitting an economic ceiling… mobile hardware is not yet up to that but soon will be and at that point more powerful hardware will be useless.
You are correct, but that “soon” is much nearer than people realize and we could face in within the next 2-3 years. However, there will be a solution at some point.
 

UnNamed

Banned
People who can build a pc with ram, 2k gpu, thermal paste on Cpu, liquid cooling and cable management, suddenly forget how to connect a phone on the TV with a cable.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Is the quality better....sure, but home console game quality goes up gen on gen, sure this gen hasnt had its RDR2 moment yet, but im sure GTA will be that moment.
Are we gonna call it the decade of home console gaming?
No because GTA games always push the standard of whats possible in gaming. But if GTA6 gets ported to mobile phone/Switch 2, or it plays well on Steam Deck 2/Rog Ally it will reinforce my thread even more

this is about handhelds getting super powerful console quality. Not the popularity. I know that DS was hyper popular, we both do, i owned a 3DS and i loved it.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
Wow name calling and all 😂 ,
Confused High Quality GIF

Where?

I guess you don’t know that with Apple Arcade you resume playing on any device that has arcade and the game.. It uses iCloud to save and resume just like the consoles do.
I'm indeed not familiar with Apple Arcade, but what you are saying could only be true if the game was being played via cloud itself, so streaming, or if the entire game's state is being saved to the cloud, so another device can resume the state; are you seriously implying that you'll be uploading gigabytes of ram data to iCloud to be able to resume playing RE4 whenever you want? Because gigabytes is what a game like RE4 is going to be using.

If Apple manages to make it work in a different way, please explain the technical details of how their solution works.
 
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