Apple And Valve: A Dream Gaming Collaboration

Reinventing mobile gaming.

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THE FUTURE OF MOBILE GAMING

Mobile gaming is big business. Smartphone gaming apps account for $50 billion of the $115 billion gaming market, with 80% of all App Store revenue coming from gaming releases alone. It all started back in 1997 when Nokia shipped the Snake game with its mobile phones, and ever since, consumers have been looking for new ways to relax and unwind with a new gaming distraction.

For Apple, gaming is one of the biggest selling points for its iPhone and iPod Touch ranges, with the Cupertino firm regularly developing more advanced hardware designed to take gaming to the next level. But despite superpowerful A11 chips and new developments in augmented reality, PC gaming is still king, with new titles such as Far Cry 5, Monster Hunter: World and State of Decay 2 dominating this year’s gaming headlines.

For mobile gaming to catch up, it needs to offer cross-platform gameplay, similar to the blockbuster success of Fortnite, which is available to play on iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and macOS. The multimillion dollar success of the rival Fortnite game, which has allowed one successful gaming streamer to make $500,000 a month, has opened up new possibilities for better relations between PC and mobile gaming - and Steam could be the bridge between the two.

Valve, the $4 billion company behind Steam, recently sent a new app, Steam Link, to the iOS App Store - but after it was initially approved by Apple, the firm made the decision to reject it. Today, we’re delving deeper into the Apple-Steam relationship and asking whether a company tie-up could change how we play video games forever.

HOW APPLE TRANSFORMED THE MOBILE GAMING MARKET