Electronic Arts knows how much you want the new iPhones, and it’s hoping that you’ll want its upcoming mobile games just as much if it optimizes them for Apple’s latest handsets.
The publisher revealed three new iOS games coming soon that will look and run better than some previous mobile games thanks to the power of the iPhone 6 and 6+ smartphones. The company will debut FIFA 15 Ultimate Team, a mobile version of the popular card-collecting, team-building mode from the console soccer game, later this month. EA is also planning to release Peggle Blast and SimCity BuildIt for iOS in the fall. Peggle Blast is the latest entry in the series that has players firing balls into a playfield to remove pegs. SimCity BuildIt is a new take on the city-management franchise.
Gaming revenue will reach $21 billion on mobile this year, and the iPhone 6 and 6+ are going to power a lot of that growth. Electronic Arts is a huge publisher that has traditionally made most of its money from console and PC games. But it’s revealing that the company has three games ready to go for the launch of a new Apple product.
FIFA and SimCity are some of EA’s biggest franchises, and Peggle has found major success on mobile platforms before. By tying the launch of these games so closely to the debut of a new iPhone, it’s clear that EA is falling over itself to ride Apple’s wake.
“All three [games] are built specifically for mobile,” EA Mobile executive vice president Frank Gibeau wrote in a blog. “And now, with the capabilities of the iPhone 6 and iOS 8, all three will be bigger and better when they hit over the next few months.”
Apple announced the iPhone 6 and 6+ yesterday. Both phones feature larger screens than previous generations, and both come packed with Apple’s powerful new A8 processor. More screen area and better visuals should enable an even better gaming experience on iPhone 6, and EA wants to take advantage of that.
In addition to the phones, EA is also already looking at supporting the Apple Watch.
“I’m also interested to see more about Apple’s new watch,” wrote Gibeau. “Clearly wearables are intriguing as an emerging gaming platform. We have a small group already prototyping ideas right now.”
The EA executive says he likes the idea of creating app extensions for games that are accessible on Apple Watch. He gave an example of an Apple Watch companion app where gamers could access the parts of the EA driving game Real Racing 3 where players earn rewards by sending challenges to friends. Apple Watch will debut in early 2015.
