New data shows that Resident Evil 7, which was recently ported to iOS devices, was purchased and downloaded by less than 2,000 players, yet another example of big games failing to succeed on Apple’s powerful portable devices.
Capcom’s fantastic survival horror sequel Resident Evil 7—originally released in 2017—launched on iOS earlier this month for $20. It’s the latest big console game to arrive on iOS devices as part of Apple’s ongoing push to get more AAA titles running natively on iPhones and iPads. Last year, Resident Evil Village and the Resident Evil 4 remake arrived on iOS. While they were playable and impressive, they were pretty awful ways to play such great games due to poor performance and crappy touch controls. And it seems players agree that these aren’t great versions of these games, as data shows that these ports are likely flopping hard on iOS.
As reported on July 16 by MobileGamer.biz, data seems to indicate that RE7′s iOS port, which launched on July 2, has only made Capcom around $28,000 via 2,000 people paying for the full game after downloading the free demo.
Other AAA iPhone ports have also failed to find much success on the App Store. As previously reported by the outlet in June, data indicates that after a month only 3,000 people had purchased Assassin’s Creed Mirage, even though its free trial version had been downloaded over 120,000 times.
2023’s Resident Evil 4 remake did a bit better after six months on the market. It was downloaded 357,000 times with data indicating that around 7,000 people paid the $30 to unlock the full game. Resident Evil Village, on the other hand, did horribly on iOS. In about the same amount of time, only around 5,700 people paid $15 to play Village on their iPhone or iPad.
Why AAA games are flopping on iPhone
So what’s happening here? Well, I think the higher price points for these AAA ports are scaring away a lot of mobile players who are used to free games. But I think the bigger issue is that these aren’t the kind of games people want to play on their phones in 2024. I love Assassin’s Creed Mirage. It’s a wonderful return to the stealth-focused gameplay and smaller worlds of older AC games, while still feeling modern and fun to play. Good shit! But I have zero desire to play that game on a tiny iPhone with a cumbersome controller attached or via terrible touchscreen buttons.
These AAA games were designed to be played for hours and hours, often in a comfy chair or couch, with a controller or keyboard and a big screen. And that’s just not the experience you get with a phone. The best mobile games are pick-up-and-play. Things you can open up, have a bit of fun with, and then drop a few seconds later because your bus arrived or your game finished installing on Xbox.
iPhones will for sure get more powerful and be able to run even more AAA games at high framerates and resolutions in the future. That’s a fact. But I’m not sold on any of these games finding success on the App Store because they just aren’t what most people want to play on their mobile devices.
So now the question is, with Capcom and other publishers not making money on these ports, how long before Apple stops (probably, this hasn’t been confirmed) funding them and all these AAA games stop arriving on iOS? How long before Apple tosses in the towel on gaming once more? We shall see…
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