Today was a momentous day for Apple, in which the company went beyond the expected and revealed a handful of its known quantities with sizable improvements and new features. Among the products revealed was the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus with some notable improvements, like a much faster GPU and double the RAM of the previous model. These phones will also debut an improvement on touch feedback called 3D Touch and for video games, it could be a major step forward.
To put it simply, 3D Touch allows the iPhone to measure touches based on force. The phone, as well as various apps, will take different actions depending on whether users lightly tap, tap as normal, or forcefully tap part of the screen. This kind of tactile feedback is a huge boost for phones and accessing shortcuts. But imagine the gaming possibilities this opens up.
Imagine game mechanics that are centered around "peek" and "pop." With more action, RPG, and puzzle games utilizing the idea of stealth or clandestine movements, having the ability to measure force and sensitivity opens the door to further immersion. Consider some of the scenarios that are now on the table. Think about a horror game, in which the environment reacts accordingly to forceful movements. Open a door too hard and watch a monster react by going straight for the face. Consider the idea of sneaking around a facility, using light taps to sneak around, but heavy taps to take out a guard.
But stealth is just the beginning. How about sports? Imagine a soccer or tennis game, where a ball travels a certain distance based on how forcefully the ball is hit. Platforming? Jumping strength and distance can be controlled based on the strength of a user's tap. A shooter? Taps can let users alternate between rapid fire and burst fire.
It may be easy to dismiss 3D Touch because it's on an iPhone and there's a large sector of the gaming public that does not take mobile gaming seriously. That's fair enough, but what happens when this technology goes beyond Apple's hands. Imagine any of the big console giants making use of this or similar technology? Imagine Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo putting a twist on this tech for a future console. To a certain degree, all of them have tried to get into touch mechanics in some fashion, with the DualShock 4 touchpad and the Wii U GamePad as primary examples. What if the tech was there for peripherals like those to offer tactile feedback?
Such an idea opens the door to a slew of creative developers, first-party and beyond, to either rejuvenate some of their established franchises or create entirely new ones. It may take years for developers to master this idea. After all, it's a new technology that developers are largely unfamiliar with. It's a new frontier. But with years of seasoning, developers have the potential to take their games to new heights. Even PC gaming can get in on this idea. Think of a PC gaming world where a mouse has 3D Touch tech instituted in it, allowing for a slew of PC gaming developers to institute it into their games.
Even if 3D Touch in the iPhone itself doesn't revolutionize gaming, there's a good chance that the technology itself will lead to something huge in the coming years. What starts off modestly in the mobile gaming space has the potential to seriously change PC and console gaming for the better in the future. While it may not be like virtual reality, in terms of pure immersion, it does have the potential to create some new and interesting gaming scenarios, some that would not have been feasible a year ago. So even if the first few iOS games to take advantage of 3D Touch tech may not be the highest quality, the technology itself is definitely something worth monitoring in the coming years.
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