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Firemint, the EA-owned mobile games studio, has unveiled a breakthrough new technology for Apple TV: four-player split screen.
The Australian studio’s blockbuster app, Real Racing 2, now allows up to four iPhone or iPad devices to connect to the same television via an Apple TV puck.
All five devices sync though Apple’s AirPlay service and can play on the same game in real-time over local Wi-Fi. While the TV displays all four players’ viewpoints in split-screen, the devices themselves present additional information.
This process is distinctly similar to the upcoming Wii U system, yet Nintendo’s approach means that only one tablet device can work during multiplayer – Apple TV allows four times that amount.
A demonstration of the technology can be found below.
The TV-to-tablet technology now supports iPad 2 and iPhone 4S devices, Firemint said.
“This takes AirPlay to the next level of iOS gaming,” Firemint said, “facilitating wireless local multiplayer for up to 4 players simultaneously in a split screen display output to your HD TV using an iPad 2 or iPhone 4S as the host.”
The studio added: “In addition to these great new features the update promises gorgeous graphical enhancements that make use of the iPad 2 & iPhone 4S A5 processor”.
