14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is already eating into the market share of the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable with the iPhone and the huge amount of small videogames available through the App Store.
And the iPad, the new touch-enabled tablet that the company unveiled last month, could offer a further gaming device, one ready to offer an experience that has no equal in the world of dedicated gaming consoles. And PopCap, the creators of successes like Plants vs. Zombies or Bejeweled, thinks its potential is revolutionary.
John Vechey, who is one of the co-founders of PopCap, told Eurogamer that “This is my opinion and I think it's going to be phenomenally successful. I really do. It's very simple; it's not like it has a magical set of features, just a great package. I know what I'm getting when I have to get my mum a computer now: an iPad. Because she can't screw it up, she can't download a bunch of stuff... That's the perfect mum computer, right? And it's the perfect computer for ten year-olds to play with.”
It seems that PopCap itself is getting ready to begin its assault on the iPad by porting videogames that it has already released on the iPhone, but Vechey did not say what titles are getting moved first and what improvements they might receive, although he did mention that Plants vs. Zombies is one of the games he personally wants to try out on the new Apple device.
Vechey also believes that it might take some time before gaming on the iPad takes off, mainly because of the fact that developers need some time to figure out how to translate more traditional experiences for the new gadget and how to create fresh games using its features. Expect to see Zuma and Bejeweled on it pretty soon, though.