Mobile gaming has spent the last few years practically exploding in popularity, user base and profitability, and Apple products host a large portion of that still-growing market. So naturally, publishers like Capcom, who were once solely interested in traditional platforms, have been working to make their games more available in the mobile space.
It’s not all that easy a thing to do though, as developing for mobile (and Apple products specifically) comes with its set of challenges. At TGS 2023, Hardcore Gamer had the chance to sit down with RE8 Producer Tsuyoshi Kanda and talk about such issues as well as some of Capcom’s aims for mobile and Apple platforms.
The conversation began with a short discussion of the perception of mobile games among those who primarily play on traditional platforms, that being that mobile games are generally inferior to their console and PC counterparts. One might think that this would be an issue that would be troublesome to overcome, but that doesn’t seem to be something that Capcom and Kanda-san are particularly worried about. Using the example of Resident Evil 8: Village for iPad as an example, Kanda-san expressed the following:
“[…] the approach for the iPhone/iPad version of Village was that [it] would give the same experience to users as on other platforms. So, for instance [the team] especially took care with the touch controls [seen in the demo], and you’re able to customize them to your liking. So you know that you can play the game comfortably. […] So that was one of the [core] aims: to deliver the same experience that you would get on other platforms.”
Based on that, it sounds like the idea is to overcome the general perception of mobile games (or at least Capcom’s mobile games) by simply offering PC/console-quality experience on iOS and other mobile platforms. Hardcore Gamer had the chance to spend some time with Resident Evil 8: Village on iPad before talking to Kanda-san, and it did indeed deliver an experience that was surprisingly close to the PC/console version. Perhaps with enough marketing and consistent effort on Capcom’s part, the quality might indeed be enough to speak for itself.
After that, the conversation turned more toward developing for Apple products themselves. Traditionally, Apple platforms, specifically Mac, haven’t really been all that favored as a gaming platform. One might wonder why Capcom is making a bigger push for it and whether or not there are any issues unique to the platform that tend to push Mac/iOS release dates back a bit. On the first point, Kanda-san gave a few reasons.
“[…] it’s already a big market itself, and Capcom has a multi-platform approach, [that is] to deliver our games to as many people as we can. So one of the reasons is that Capcom sees an opportunity for a new market for console-quality games. Capcom would [also] like to challenge ourselves to basically create that market for high-quality games on mobile devices.” It also seems that Apple is thinking a lot more seriously about games lately and has been at least somewhat easy to work with.
As for any development challenges and whether or not Capcom is hoping to achieve simultaneous releases on Apple and other platforms, Kanda-san said that it’s mostly a matter of optimization and didn’t mention any serious hurdles to developing for Apple products. It also seems that simultaneous releases may indeed be possible one day, but he declined to speculate on when that might actually happen.
Finally, for anyone who might be wondering, Kanda-san is himself an iPhone user and apparently has his eye on the latest model; he wasn’t sure when or if he was actually going to get it. To put this all together, though, it’s looking like Capcom is serious about creating good mobile versions of many of its games and getting them out to as many platforms in the space as possible, Apple products included.
The way already appears to be paved considering the state of Resident Evil 8: Village for iOS, so it could just be a matter of the publisher keeping up its momentum in the coming years. Here’s hoping that the venture winds up being successful.
