Well, before we get to that, we have to talk about who is buying the iPad.
Who is buying this thing?
When the iPad came out it met with a resounding meh from the tech community. What it reminds me of is the reception of the original iPod.
Quote:
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
Anyone else remember that Slashdot post? The refrain for the iPad sounds similar:
Quote:
No multitasking. Closed OS. Lame.
This is true, and it's also wrong. It is lame, for people like us. The problem is that, if you're reading this blog, the iPad isn't for you. You might buy one, but you're not the target market. The target market doesn't read tech blogs.
Who is the target market?
People who don't care about computers.
People who just want to check their facebook. People who want to look up a map at a coffee shop. People that want to send out a quick email without waiting 30 seconds for their laptop to boot up. For that matter, people too dumb to figure out how to log into their facebook will probably also love this. (Though I don't mean to suggest that not caring about computers equates with stupidity, but I do think this will certainly appeal to people who are unwilling to learn how to use a computer)
A small digression: I don't think the iPad lacks multitasking because that would be hard to do. It lacks multitasking because multitasking will confuse a lot of it's potential users. Did I mention, that in many ways, this is a profoundly cynical device?
I thought you were going to talk about games?
Oh. Right. Games.
I'm not going to tell you what games you should make, but I am interested in the question of which games will be popular for the iPad. Even if people don't care about computers, I think they do care about games, and I think the game market for this will be huge.
In terms of games, it reminds me a lot of the Wii. A lot of hardcore gamers thought the Wii was ridiculous, but it had a massive appeal to people who were too intimidated to try games before that. It leveled the playing field for them.
I don't know that the iPad will have the same Wii level of popularity (though I wouldn't be surprised), but it does present a novel interface for games.
Here's the kinds of games I think will work really well on this:
- Board Games/Social Games: Why not? Social, easy to pass around, does the messy book keeping work that a person would otherwise have to do.
- Card games: Solitaire! The multitouch is perfect for this. Even better for something like poker. Poker will be huge. Seriously. There are going to be a lot of poker apps. I'll be curious to see what happens in the next generation when they add a camera.
- Physics puzzles: This works much better than it does on the iPhone because of the increased screen real estate, and it's very natural with the multitouch interface.
- Tycoon games: Tends to appeal to the casual gamer, and is easy to pick up/put away. Build your empire while you sit on the train.
- God games/Strategy games 1024x768 is enough screen real estate to do this with, and the multitouch makes these games much more natural.
- Brain apps: Things like Brain Age will be popular, because I think the iPad is going to be really popular among older people. Trivia games too. These things tend to be ignored, but they also sell really well.
What's not going to work?
I'm sure there are going to be exceptions, but in general I think action games aren't going to work very well. It's just an awkward interface for it.
3D games will kind of work, but on the other hand, if you want to play something like that, a console or a desktop makes much more sense.
