The iPhone 5 shows powerful, asynchronous future for mobile games

Unless you've been off the grid for the past few hours, you already know that Apple has unveiled its iPhone 5, its thinnest, smartest, fastest, loveliest, sexiest, best ... est iPhone yet. You get the idea. What the tech giant didn't focus on, and perhaps it should, is that its newest device points to a future where the worlds of core and casual mobile gaming meet.

During the announcement for the iPhone 5, EA Studios executive producer Rob Murray gave a live demonstration of Real Racing 3, by FireMonkeys. Amid showing off the console-quality graphics of the racer, thanks to the new A6 processor in the iPhone 5, Murray teased an interested new feature available through Apple's Game Center: Time-shifted Multiplayer.

"I can challenge Vince one day, and he can race me the next," Murray said, according to Engadget.This feature allows players to race their friends while they're not actually on the other end. Based on what was shown during the demo, it appears that players will race computer-controlled representations of their friends' vehicles and send those results to said friends as challenges through Game Center.

In other words, creators of core-focused multiplayer games on mobile devices has been taking copious notes from the likes of Words With Friends. Asynchronous multiplayer, popularized in Facebook games like FarmVille, could very well become the norm in even the hardest of core games on high-powered iOS and Android devices. Just because you're strapped for time doesn't mean you have to do without gorgeous games anymore.

[Image Credit: Engadget]

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