One year after Apple’s gaming offensive: What about AAA titles on the iPhone in 2024?

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Some AAA games are available on the iPhone 15 Pro (Max). But hardly anything has changed since last year – but I’m not losing hope

The last WWDC presentation from Apple was all about “AI” – Apple Intelligence. Nevertheless, there were also a few pleasant tidbits for us gamers. On the one hand, the company is launching a new gaming offensive for Mac users and, on the other, the Game Porting Toolkit is being updated to an improved version 2. This should make it even easier for developers to port Windows games to Macs.

One thing I missed, however: Where are all the AAA titles on the iPhone thatwere presented so grandly last year

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The list of games is still very clear

I’ll be honest: If Apple hadn’t unveiled Assassin’s Creed Shadows for iPhones yesterday, I would have forgotten that the Cupertinians announced last year that AAA games would land on the iPhone 15 Pro (Max)

So I look back and wonder: How many iPhone blockbuster games have actually been released in the meantime?

To my disappointment, the list is still very short:

  • Resident Evil Village
  • Resident Evil 4
  • Death Stranding: Director’s Cut
  • Assassin’s Creed Mirage
  • Assassin’s Creed Shadows (from November 15, 2024)
  • Resident Evil 7 (from July 02, 2024)
  • Resident Evil 2 Remake (no release date yet)

Why I expect more:I was hoping we’d see significantly more games on the iPhone 15 Pro phones a year later.

I think Apple has an opportunity here to polish the image of mobile gaming, shake up the market and motivate more developers and manufacturers to port AAA games. The way I see it, it feels like almost every second mobile game is currently a casino with a cartoon and/or anime skin

My exaggerated idea:You play GTA 6 on the go on your smartphone, which is clamped into a cell phone controller (or even on the touchscreen). You come home, place the device in a docking station, pick up the wireless controller and simply continue playing the game on the big screen.

Okay, playing GTA 6 on your phone might be one of the worst ways to play the new blockbuster. But I’d certainly like to see mobile become a viable alternative for gamers who don’t own a console or gaming PC and don’t want to rely on cloud gaming

As it stands now, I think AAA games on mobile still have a very long way to go.

Android has really good gaming devices – with little reason to exist

(The new Ayn Odin 2 Mini is an Android handheld with a Playstation Vita look. (Image: Ayn))
(The new Ayn Odin 2 Mini is an Android handheld with a Playstation Vita look. (Image: Ayn))

In the Android camp, we find gaming smartphones and cool handhelds with active cooling, haptic trigger buttons and, of course, extremely powerful chips (for example the Ayn Odin 2 Mini with a Playstation Vita look). However, apart from retro games and emulation, all the potential is wasted.

Current AAA games for Android do not exist and after Apple’s announcement last year I had hoped that this would change.

I’m not losing hope! The fact that Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Resident Evil 2 Remake will be released on the iPhone is at least a sign of life. Now I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this gaming offensive doesn’t end up where Google ended up with Stadia.

What do you think about gaming on cell phones? Would you also like to see more “real” games on cell phones or is that not an option for you? Let us know in the comments!