Just like that, Apple’s yearly WWDC keynote has wrapped up, and boy oh boy, did it include plenty for gamers to look forward to. This was in addition to Apple’s big push into the world of AI thanks to their new Apple Intelligence and partnership with ChatGPT.
If you missed the keynote, don’t worry; I’ve got your back and will highlight the biggest and best gaming announcements from it. Starting with the iPhone, iOS 18 will add a brand new Gaming Mode, which looks very similar to what gamers are already used to using on Mac.
This mode automatically minimises background activities when you’re gaming to ensure the best performance possible while also allowing responsive connections with AirPods and wireless gaming controllers.
The next big announcement was that Spatial Audio will be coming to games for the first time thanks to a new developer API. The upcoming Need for Speed Mobile will be the first game to really use this feature when it releases to Apple products later this year.
On the iMac and iPad side of things, Vice President and Executive Producer of the Assassin’s Creed franchise Marc-Alexis Côté joined the keynote to announce that the upcoming Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, will be releasing day one to Mac alongside its console and PC counterparts on the 15th of November.
Even more exciting is that they’ve already confirmed that the game will also be released on iPad devices. However, no release window for that was announced. And while the keynote didn’t have any mention of the game coming to iPhone, it’s more than likely that it will be – especially considering that Assassin’s Creed Mirage just launched on both the iPhone 15 and M1 iPads,
The final gaming gem for Apple users to get excited about is the new Games Porting Toolkit 2. For those who don’t know, the Games Porting Toolkit allows Mac users to run games on their machine even if the game doesn’t have a Mac Version.
The new version of this software will include improved Windows compatibility, new shader debugging tools, and more, making it easier to use.
That’s everything gaming-related that was announced during the keynote. While it might not seem like much, this is massive for Apple and really gets me excited about what the future of gaming with Apple products will look like. And yes, I am an Apple fan—and no, I don’t care what you think, Mr. Editor. I don’t care at all.