Apple executives spoke about this
During the iPhone 15 reveal this week, Apple paid a lot of attention to the gaming capabilities of its new A17 Pro chip. In a new interview, a trio of Apple executives revealed more details about the company’s plans to turn the iPhone 15 into “the best gaming console in the world.”
IGN spoke with Jeremy Sandmel, Apple’s senior director of GPU software, Tim Millett, vice president of platform architecture, and Kayann Drance, vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing.
Millet emphasized that Apple’s goal is not necessarily to compete directly with specific consoles such as the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series S. Instead, the company is focused on creating a platform and tools that will appeal directly to game developers: “I think we’re focused on developers and game titles. Less trying to compete with consoles. I think the console is just a convenient way to talk about classic games and the types of games that developers are targeting, those who have successfully brought them there. We’ve done everything we can to try to give developers the same set of tools, and we’re working hard with them.”
In response to the possibility of the iPhone 15 Pro overheating and being unable to maintain performance in intense games, Drance explained: “This is part of our advantage that we are designing for a specific iPhone model. So at the system level, we can work across teams to understand what performance we’re delivering, how it will translate into actual gameplay, and whether we can achieve those amazing frames, speed, peak performance, and graphics that I talked about Jeremy and whether we can support them. I know we’re doing a lot on the SoC side, we’re doing a lot on the software side to make sure it’s a great experience.”
Millet added that part of the challenge of striking the perfect balance between performance, quality, and more falls on the shoulders of the developer: “There’s amazing scaling technology built into the display itself. Scaling can be done by the GPU. So with features like ray tracing and mesh shading, and this advanced computing architecture, the developer has access to all of these algorithms to figure out what’s the best balance of compute, quality, performance, frame rate, and resolution. And then we bring it all together in software and at the system level. We care about providing reliability, high performance, long battery life, and easy storage so that anyone can play these amazing games. That’s why we’ve designed everything to make the game as comfortable as possible, including ensuring stable performance and battery life. We believe we have succeeded.”
Sandmel recalled the phrase: “The best gaming console is the one you have with you.” But that’s not what Apple is targeting this time. Instead, Sandmel believes the iPhone 15 Pro “will simply be a better gaming console.”
