As a fan of Apple Arcade, I’ve been an advocate of gaming on iPhones and iPads, with the service offering some rather interesting exclusive games.
But even before that, I was a quiet fan of mobile gaming, most notably with FTL: Faster than Light, which is near-perfect on an iPad mini. However, I’ve always felt that iPhones could do more, given the power of their chips – especially in the Pro phones – and the tight integration of hardware and software.
Such a view is slowly coming to fruition, with the likes of Death Stranding, Sniper Elite 4, and, more recently, Hitman World of Assassination playable on recent iPhones.
And I feel that Apple has been quietly embracing gaming over recent Apple events, what with developer showcases, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and more. I think getting Cyberpunk 2077 running on Macs is especially impressive.
Now, with vapor chamber cooling highly tipped for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, which should help the phones’ equally tipped A19 Pro chipset deliver extended peak performance, these flagship iPhones could and should be gaming powerhouses all wrapped up in slick industrial designs.
A new dawn for mobile gaming...
And my prediction, based on my experience covering Apple events and products, is that Apple could make a big deal about gaming in iPhone and iOS this year. I can even foresee a segment of the September 9 showcase revealing a version of Cyberpunk 2077 that can run on the new iPhones; it runs on the Nintendo Switch 2 after all.
Or Apple could use the debut of a new chipset and cooling system to usher in a suite of new high-end exclusive games for Apple Arcade that’ll launch the same day as the new phones are released. Such games could be from established studios or new ones, perhaps with a game developer luminary at the helm.
That all might be wishful and ambitious thinking on my part, but I’m still predicting gaming will have its moment in the limelight next week. And for people like me, it could even be the highlight of the show.
Sure, a new telephoto camera for the iPhone 17 Pro models would tickle my phone photography synapse, and I'd certainly welcome a 120Hz display on the standard iPhone 17. But I feel Apple always has momentum in delivering impressive console-grade gaming on iPhone, and so has the scope to impress even further.
As such, not only am I low-key hyped for the vapor chamber cooling on the iPhone 17 Pro, I’ve also got it in my mind that this generation of Apple phones could be a lodestar for smartphone gaming, even in the face of the best handheld consoles.
Of course, this prediction could be way off the mark, despite my years of covering Apple, so I stand ready to be wrong.
So, it’s over to you: do you think Apple could go big on iPhone gaming? Would you be excited for such a thing? And what are you most looking forward to from September’s Apple event? Let me know in the comments below.
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