"We are 12 to 24 months away from being able to disrupt the living room with experiences that you might be playing on an iPad version four, but projecting … to a TV in your living room," he predicts. It'll be "every bit as good" as the experience of playing a high-end console game today, he adds.
With more than 200 million devices running Apple's mobile operating system — and 100,000 games available — Apple has transformed the traditional mobile-game marketplace. Spending on mobile games is expected to account for 15% of all spending on game software this year, rising to 20% in 2015, research firm Gartner predicts.
IHS/Screen Digest expects the sale of games in Apple's App Store to approach $2 billion worldwide in 2011, up about 75% from 2010. The closest mobile-games rival, Android Market, is forecast at $170 million for 2011, the firm says.
To be sure, console games played on systems such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 remain the dominant force in video games, accounting for about 40% of the projected $74 billion to be spent globally on games in 2011, Gartner says.
Hit video games still sell very well. First-person shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops has earned Activision Blizzard more than $1 billion in sales since its November release. But sales of console games have plateaued in recent years, with mobile and online games supplying most of the industry growth.
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