Last week’s announcement of the iPad 2 may have left some of us less than impressed, but as the days wore on, such criticisms fell quickly into the minority. Why? Maybe it has to do something with the development community. From a consumer standpoint the iPad 2 may not seem to be a big leap forward – but for developers? It’s a dream come true.
Last week’s announcement of the iPad 2 may have left some of us less than impressed, but as the days wore on, such criticisms fell quickly into the minority. Why? Maybe it has to do something with the development community. From a consumer standpoint the iPad 2 may not seem to be a big leap forward – but for developers? It’s a dream come true.
With the device set to launch in the US tomorrow, Gamezebo has reached out to some of the iPad’s biggest and best developers to try and better understand why the development community seems so psyched about the new specs of the iPad 2. Here’s what they had to say;
Andrew Stein, Senior Director of Mobile Business Development, PopCap Games
“[We’re] always excited about new, more powerful technology. Although the iPad was a powerful device, we found ourselves running up against some limits as we were adapting our games to the iPad. Introduction of the camera, gyroscope, etc on iPad 2 means that there’s now feature parity between iPhone 4, iPod touch 4th gen and iPad 2. Consistent availability of features makes it much easier for us to start thinking about how we could incorporate those into gameplay. [We’re also] pleased that the resolution isn’t changing as we don’t have to rework our existing games to be supported on the iPad 2.”
Jonathan Kromrey, Executive Producer, Namco Bandai Games
“With Apple’s iPad 2 announcement last week, we’re really excited the device will offer nine times the power. This gives developers and publishers additional tools to work with, and anything that gives us more is another great opportunity. NAMCO BANDAI Games America will continue to push the capabilities of the latest and greatest technologies to bring top-tier content to our fans. We have no doubt that the gaming industry will see titles that fully utilize the hardware creating rich, immersive gaming experiences.”
Rob Murray, CEO, Firemint
“While we were not aware of the specs for iPad 2 before the keynote, we made some educated guesses about where we thought the hardware might head, so for many months now we have been developing a much more graphically intensive version of Real Racing 2 HD to take advantage of the anticipated performance improvements. Real Racing 2 HD has been significantly enhanced beyond what could work on existing devices, and our efforts have definitely given us a head start on iPad 2.”
Chris Byatte and Joe Wee, Co-Founders, Chillingo
“The original iPad has seen a significant rise in popularity since launch, and Apple’s iPad 2 announcements yesterday will drive consumer demand for tablet-centric game innovation. The iPad 2 has some significant benefits over the first generation device for developers, particularly the increased processing and graphics capabilities, which will improve the overall user experience and game presentation.”
