iPad 3 Won't Change The Gaming Industry, Say Capcom

In an interview with GameInformer, Capcom's SVP of planning and business development Christian Svensson dismissed the threat that the upcoming iPad 3 will pose to the conventional console gaming market. The head honcho suggested that gamers will continue to play games on their iPad and iPhone and continue to play stuff on their console, rather than cannibalizing the console market:

Unless there are some fundamental changes to the input device, I don€™t think it changes the audiences meaningfully. I don€™t think it€™s the hardware capability that€™s the game changer. It will enable some new experiences but not meaningfully different enough to necessarily move core console gamers who only play console games off of there and onto the iPad exclusively.

Svensson is probably right - though there will be those who begin to consider tablet gaming as a sibling to console gaming, instead of to mobile gaming, and the effect on the console market will only be minimalised by the reluctance in developers to release tentpole games for iOS at the same time as for consoles and at a competitive price-point. The SVP then went on to suggest how the iPad 3 might claw away some of the console market:

Now, if Apple introduced a controller, say a Bluetooth controller, and Apple TV worked on my TV properly with a proper AirPlay experience, then you€™re talking about something that could be a seismic shift and a real threat to the console space.

And that's the rub of it: the iPad 3 on its own might not destabilise the console market, but peripheral additions like an OnLive style controller to allow for more complex commands than mobile gaming currently does, or the development of the tablet itself as a controller in the manner of the upcoming WiiU would certainly make that more of a possibility, as I have already said. Meanwhile, the iPad 3 is launched this Friday.