One of the stated purposes of the new iPad is for playing games. During its presentation on Wednesday Apple showed off games being played on its new tablet. You can see a demonstration of a snow mobile game from the Apple keynote in the video below.
To start with iPad users will only have games to play that were made for the iPhone. Apple says the iPad will work with almost all of the apps designed for the iPhone. Kotaku has a review of how some of the iPhone apps work on the iPad
here.
The iPad can't compete with the big game consoles (Wii, Xbox 360
and PlayStation 3), or the PC, but it could be a fun, portable gaming device for casual gamers. There are already game publishers like Gameloft and Electronic Arts developing new games for the iPad. There are likely to be many more game publishers getting on board as well. If Apple sells a lot of units then even more game publishers will want to make games for the device. This could help the iPad compete with portable gaming devices like the Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP.
There are several drawbacks to the iPad as a gaming device. Some gamers do not think touchscreen controls emulating d-pads makes for fun gaming. The Apple iPad also does not have a web camera. This means iPad users will miss out on augmented reality. Augmented reality is already being implented on everything from greeting cards to baseball cards. AR gaming is expected to be huge but a web camera is needed to bring AR games to life. You can see an example of an AR game here. Another noted drawback to playing games on the Apple iPad is the lack of flash. This means iPad users can not play free Flash games. The missing Flash technology is likely intentional. Apple wants iPad users to buy games from its iTunes store not play them free online.
