The iPad can obviously handle games. Without a doubt, any video game that can run on a low end net book would have no problems on the iPad. Considering that the iPad already has a 1GHz processor, it can certainly handle some of the heavy hardware requirements of some old titles.
Of course, games are just more than graphic eye-fests; there are plenty of great video games that require little more than low end specs that the iPad surpasses by leaps and bounds. The real question is not whether the device can play games; it is a matter of whether the iPad actually has games to play.
The first major argument would be that the iPad is able to run any application for the iPhone. That is a large library of over a hundred thousand applications (about 140,000 games according to some estimates), but remove all the casual games and you will be left with a very paltry number (if any).
This is because mobile games are not meant to target real video game players. If a real gamer wants to play, they will not be doing it on an iPhone; they will do it on a console, a handheld or the PC.
Another pro-game argument for the iPad is the fact that it provides a combination of a touch screen and tilting. It is obvious that when people say this, they have never seen a Six Axis controller, the Steel Battalion controller or even the Solar Boy Django game for the GBA. Unique user input systems are present in many games. It is not more immersive just because you can tilt the screen
Lastly, the cheap downloads argument. Yes, you can get cheap games on the iPad –cheap, second rate games that would never satisfy a real gamer. Why waste a “fiver” on a game not worth playing when you can buy a great epic game at a more realistically expensive price?
Read more about the Telegraph’s view on iPad gaming.
