Apple holds special media event touting gaming on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Apple this week quietly held a gaming-focused media event in New York City. The event is said to have focused on showing off things like Game Mode in iOS 18, the new M4 iPad Pro performance, and more.

Macotakara detailed the event, which was held on July 10, in a blog post today. On display at the NYC event were the iPhone 15 Pro Max, M4 iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac. Some of the iPhone 15 Pro Max was demo units were paired with controllers from Backbone. There were also PlayStation DualSense controllers from Sony available for Mac and iPad gaming demos as well.

Among the games shown off by Apple during this event were:

• Rseident Evil 7 Biohazard
• Valheim
• Assassin’s Creed Mirage
• Diablo Immortal
• Zenless Zone Zero
• Palworld

The event also focused on the new gaming features coming as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 this year. iOS 18, for example, brings Game Mode to the iPhone for the first time. Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit is also now available to let developers port macOS games to iOS. iOS 18 expands AirPods Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking to gaming with reduced audio latency.

Apple held a similar event for members of the press and influencers last year, offering a look at games coming to iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac. Following last year’s event, there were a number of articles and social media posts from those in attendance. So far, this story from Macotaka is the only write up from this year’s event.

Over the last several years, particularly with the advent of Apple silicon for the Mac, Apple has ramped up its emphasis on gaming across all of its platforms. Do you think gaming on Apple platforms has gotten significantly better recently? Let us know down in the comments.