Analysts play down iPad gaming potential

Top industry analysts have played down the gaming potential of Apple's recently-announced iPad.

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter and EEDAR's Jesse Divnich have both expressed scepticism towards the device as a gaming platform, suggesting that it faces an uphill struggle to compete in the current market.

Speaking ahead of the touch-screen tablet's unveiling, Pachter said: "The Apple tablet is going to be priced pretty high, certainly more than $300, so it's going to have limited appeal to gamers, although some people will buy it obviously.

"I think the early offerings on the tablet will be a lot closer to iPod Touch/iPhone style games, and then probably morph into DS kind of games and then ultimately will morph into PSP quality games."

In the wake of Apple's press conference, Divnich told IndustryGamers: "Right now the iPhone infrastructure is not conducive to a healthy bottom line for third-party publishers. Games are just too cheap with the most premium of games retailing on the iPhone for $10 (or $7 in publisher revenue).

"If third-party publishers are going to treat the iPad as a serious gaming device the average selling price per game has to at least double, which is difficult to achieve, especially when you consider that your $19.99 game in the App Store is competing against games that sell for $1 to $5."

According to Apple, the iPad will start at $499 (£308).