Chair: iPad 2 is "a game-changer"

The iPad 2, which launches in the US today, is "a game-changer", according to Infinity Blade developer Chair Entertainment.

"I think it is a game changer," said creative director Donald Mustard when asked by Eurogamer whether he thought the second iteration of Apple's tablet technology represented a significant step forward for core gaming on iOS devices.

"They've significantly increased the processing power of the iPad 2 and also added a lot more memory. Now having 512 megs of memory, the new processing power and increased screen resolution allows us to throw so much more processing at the applications.

"With Infinity Blade we felt we were really pushing at the edge of what can be done. We think this is another leap. It's significant."

A new update for Chair's acclaimed, Unreal-powered iOS slash 'em up Infinity Blade launches today to take advantage of the iPad 2's additional oomph.

"We've really cranked up the textures," Mustard promised. "We've added super, super hi-res bump maps and specular maps to all the characters. And we were even able to turn on full-screen anti-aliasing. It runs butter-smooth at 30 frames per second."

Mustard added that although Chair, whose previous titles include Xbox Live Arcade efforts Shadow Complex and Undertow, had future plans for Apple's touch screen devices, it would also be returning to console development at some point.

"We're definitely not iOS-only, but we're also definitely 'yes to iOS'," he explained.

"Infinity Blade really opened our eyes not just to the market place on iOS but really what could be done with these devices. So I think we'll definitely be supporting the iOS and the more mobile platforms for the foreseeable future.

"However, we're also working on some other things not specific to those devices. We're really platform agnostic at Chair. We just want to make really, really awesome stuff. We want to make games that make sense for the right devices, so we'll continue to pursue that."

Following its US roll-out today, the iPad 2 hits UK shelves on 25th March, the same day as the Nintendo 3DS.