Resident Evil Village on the iPhone 15 Pro actually looks pretty good

Apple has been making some big claims about the gaming capabilities of its upcoming iPhone 15 Pro, and initially, I was quite skeptical. The idea of the iPhone being the best game console seemed far-fetched to me, even with Apple’s touted GPU capabilities and promises of high-fidelity games like Resident Evil Village, the Resident Evil 4 remake, and Death Stranding coming to the device. However, after seeing footage of Resident Evil Village running on an iPhone 15 Pro, my skepticism is starting to waver.

In a video shared by YouTuber Vincent Zhong, we can see the game in action on the iPhone 15 Pro. At first, Zhong plays Village using a mobile game controller attachment, and the gameplay looks surprisingly decent. However, the real surprise comes when Zhong connects the phone to an external display and a DualSense controller. In the video, Resident Evil Village looks remarkably close to the graphical quality of the game on a console.

Of course, it’s not a perfect match. According to the captions in Zhong’s video, the game’s resolution is locked at 1560 x 720, and the framerate is locked at 30fps. Zhong also acknowledges that the screen mirroring effect is not as good as on the phone and definitely not as good as the original effect on the game console. Despite these limitations, being able to plug your phone into a monitor and play console-quality games on a big screen could be appealing, especially when you’re traveling or away from your home setup.

The real test will be the final versions of the iOS ports of games like Village, RE4, and Death Stranding. If Apple can deliver on its promises and convince more developers to bring their console-quality games to the iPhone, it could be a game-changer. It’s certainly a more intriguing prospect than I initially thought.

This gaming push from Apple is part of a larger focus on higher-end gaming across its devices. For Macs, Apple has introduced a Proton-like tool that can run Windows games, opening up a whole new world of gaming possibilities for Mac users. While we wait to see if Apple’s promises translate into more games available on Macs, at least we’ll have the opportunity to give games like Baldur’s Gate 3 a shot.

Overall, Apple’s claims about the gaming capabilities of the iPhone 15 Pro may not be as far-fetched as they initially seemed. With the right optimization and developer support, the iPhone 15 Pro could well become a formidable game console in its own right. Only time will tell if Apple can deliver on its promises and truly revolutionize mobile gaming.