Despite numerous pronouncements about the death of Flash, there are still plenty of games and videos that require it, much to the frustration of anyone using an iOS device to try to access those websites. But with the release of a new app available today, iSwifter will bring Flash to the iPad so that users can play Flash-based social games and MMOs.
The app itself is free, and after a 7-day free trial, will require a monthly subscription fee of $4.99.
The app doesn’t simply port Flash-based video content to the iPad, clearly, as it has to support multitouch for input if it’s going to suffice for gameplay. And it isn’t running Flash per se, something that would have put the app at odds with Apple’s rules for developers. Instead, the app works something like Netflix, converting the Flash-based content on iSwifter’s own servers then streaming the content to the app.
According to iSwifter founder Rajat Gupta, “We have spent the last year building a cloud-based Flash browser technology that provides low latency interactivity and high frame rate rendering for an optimal user experience.” And that user experience will be key, particularly for gameplay.
By creating this app, iSwifter says it will save game developers the time of having to port their Flash games to iPad. But it will also open up the wealth of Flash-based games to iPad users. Mobile gaming is skyrocketing in popularity, and as we wrote last month, iOS users are particularly voracious when it comes to their gaming habits, downloading some 5 million games per day.
