This was my take away on it too - Minecraft Dungeons is a good implementation and I have been able to run dungeons with my son without it feeling like a hinderance. I have the Kishi - so touch is probably more about being a backup for me.
The great thing is that this lower’s the barrier to entry for people , and that can only be a good thing.
This so much. I have my controller with me everywhere I go now, but having such a lower cost of entry from the sub, to the games, devices and accessories is amazing.
That’s what I think as well. I am going to get a controller at some point, but if I do not have it on me and want a quick gaming session to pass the time at least it is there and works good enough for some games.
Minecraft Dungeons for me is the shining example of touch controls. I love playing that game on my phone now… who could’ve imagined.
I loved how deep the touch integration can be, like you can just tap on the item on the menu and it detects.
I wonder if they had to code for that or made it all in metadata meshing the pc with keyboard/mouse and controller input.
I agree. It almost feels like a native mobile port minus the need for an Internet connection of course.
Wreckfest gameplay (without the licenced music), works super well (and that game is really fun by the way, very good fit for xCloud and touch controls). I hope Forza Horizon 4 is on the way !
not a fan of touch controls unless its turn based rpgs
I’ve been thinking Octopath Traveler would be an excellent touch controls candidate.
Some tidbits :
Some games with touch controls are seeing 40% and above Cloud playerbases exclusively using touch:
About 40% of players that play Minecraft Dungeons do so on their phone with touch exclusively. That’s 40% of players who never have to touch a controller. I was like, that’s a dream number. That was above the goal we set for ourselves. And the coolest thing is we’re not alone in this either.
Did you try Hellblade? Hellblade has seen similar numbers, great success with their work. Personally, I love how Hellblade’s developer Ninja Theory took a different approach from Minecraft Dungeons, using contextualization. Hellblade is such an immersive game, and how Ninja Theory managed to take it and retain that immersiveness on a small screen, using contextual buttons, is impressive. Tell Me Why is another. If you haven’t tried it, do it. Many of these games are seeing 40% and above playerbases exclusively using touch. It’s impressive.
Precision:
https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1384933873008644097
(…)
Took seven weeks for Minecraft Dungeons to feel like a mobile native version (compared to potentially years for a full mobile native version), the game streaming team at Xbox can make a console game playable with a standard overlay on a phone in “literally like 10 minutes”:
The game streaming team [at Xbox] have done a great job at making it easy. They have a term called “lift and shift” to describe how it takes literally like, 10 minutes to get your Xbox One game and make it playable with a standard overlay on a phone. We did come in a bit early, so we had some extra hoops to jump around. We had time zone challenges too, given that we’re in Europe and Microsoft’s game streaming team is in Redmond. These things were overcome fairly easily.
We landed in about seven weeks. If you compare that to doing a full mobile native version, it would take years potentially, and then you wouldn’t even be able to do some things. You can’t run a peer-to-peer server on a phone easily, it would drain the battery in minutes. The cloud helps circumvent these limitations, and it just works. It’s really quite something. (…)
On the shift with younger players that played mobile games growing up:
You touched on an interesting point when you said that the core gaming audience does tend to prefer controllers. Kids who are younger, they often tend to play with touch. To some extent that might be the sign of the times. We have an entire generation that has grown up with touch as the main input. That’s the standard. For them, maybe controllers feel weird. That is something that is happening — a shift for players growing up. They’ve been playing games on their iPhones since the very first iPhone came out. (…)
On that new audience:
We’re in the early stages of understanding the potential market right now, but if you think of the number — the sheer number of these devices — there’s billions of mobile devices. Billions. Suddenly, you can go beyond the combined install base of all consoles over history — there’s still probably more phones out there. Being able to go and reach that audience is great. It’s cool, right?
Thanks for sharing it here.
My dream of playing a casual Forza Horizon 5 on my smartphone will be a reality soon.
That’s really great to see. I truly think this will be the way to gain more mobile players.
Currently playing Viva Piñata and What Remains of Edith Finch with Touch controls and I’m loving it. Fits very well these kind of controls.