the first game for apples handheld is "Photoshop 9: It's a wonderful life"

I agree, MSFT has always been a software company and then all of the sudden it unveiled the Xbox. I was surprised and rather unhappy. Would have prefered someone like Toshiba or Dell do it instead.

I saw it as "Super rich company, meet huge growing industry that you have no business getting involved with"

What a twist, not bashing anyone, it is after all what is presented. Apple is going into the market and a VP states who they view as competitors, similarly to how Microsoft noted thier competitors for thier Xbox.


Now if you want to be so defensive then tense up and blow your energies, but your fighting a shadow.

I've heard this rhetoric from Apple before, a few months back. There was a snippet article in an EGM where their ego came through on this.


Here are the major problems with the iPhone competing with gaming:

1. Limited userbase. Anyone can buy and enjoy all the benefits of the DS and PSP, because they're portable gaming machines. The iPhone? That's right, it's not for everyone. Especially if you factor in all the millions of people that have phone plans with companies that don't offer the iPhone. Who is it, just AT&T? Already they've grossly limited their potential fanbase.

2. Buttons. Like it or not, a touch-screen and tilt functions are not enough to make all variety of video games. You need buttons--external buttons that aren't going to interfere with gameplay by your greasy fingerprints clouding up the screen after a hectic half an hour of gameplay.

3. The iPhone is not designed as a game machine, and not really built for larger, hardcore-style games. It's not made for First Person Shooters or RPG's or platformers or any more complex game genre. The Wii and DS both target the casual audiences as well as the hardcore gamer. The iPhone? Don't count on it. The games are meant for pick-up-and-play casuals who have a few minutes to burn on the bus or transit system or whatever. It's not condusive to lengthly, detailed, hardcore gaming. I've played iPhone games. They're cute and exist only as a minor distraction. Some are pretty clever. Some, not so much.

4. Prone to interruption. You can actually see this nuisance on the commercials. Some guy is playing what appears to be a Crash Bandicoot cart racing game, then some wanker suddenly calls him and interrupts the game. Now, I'm sure there's a built-in pause feature to the phone that automatically holds the game until you resume it, but still--is this really a hassle you want to have during your gaming? Could you imagine a worse fate playing a game like Burnout on this thing, or a real-time strategy title? Burnout titles require an awful lot of concentration and focus. Interruptions to this kind of gameplay can be devastation on a gamer's performance.

5. Motion controls do not necessarily benefit handheld gaming. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to play a portable gaming device if I can't see the bloody thing. Tilting and tipping, or shaking the handheld gaming device means that I'm blurring and shifting the focus--the screen.

6. Price. The iPhone is hellishly costly compared to the PSP and especially to the DS (though the DSi will be on the same level as the PSP price-wise). Sure, you get a lot of other functions, but you get a wide variety of functions on the DS and PSP as well, and for a much lower cost.

7. Unnecessary power. Apple tries to brag about how much graphical and processing power and harddrive space the iPhone has. That's all well and good, but since the only games readily playable on the system are no-depth casual titles, who really cares? That power won't be pushed. You're not getting Final Fantasy or Disgea. You won't see Grand Theft Auto or Moon. No Dragon Quest or Need For Speed. No God of War. No Phantom Hourglass.

8. Apple's history with gaming. Apple has never been a gaming-friendly company. When you talk PC gaming, you don't mean a Mac. Computer gaming is the realm of Windows, or maybe Linux. Anyone can list off several popular PC titles and franchises. Doom, Quake, Half-Life, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, etc. What can you list off-hand that Apple had? Marathon? A weak Doom-clone? And what else? Do you remember the Apple-Bandai Pippon? Apple's one game console, during the 32/64-bit generation. A 32-bit CD-based system not even as powerful as the Saturn or Playstation--but it sure cost a lot. $600 at a time the Playstation was half that. Apple is simply not considered where gaming is concerned. And that's industry-wide. The N-Gage had almost no games, but it did have it's own attention and channels and sections in gaming media before it's hasty death. Apple has quite a few games on the iPhone, but no gaming media coverage or real respect. They aren't even considered a contender.




The one advantage--perhaps the only one--to the iPhone is that the games are cheap and can be downloaded quickly. But again, you're not getting a major quest with a deeply involved storyline. You're getting very minor rhythm tap games and old stuff like a version of Breakout (or Arkanoid if you like) that is a little more cumbersome to play because you have to slide your finger across the screen to move the paddle.

Apple is out of their minds.

dib8r, while he isn't talking shit, he knows nothing of the industry. He said ipod touch had 1500 games. more like 1500 shit games, it's another company with too much money for its own good and a hole being burned in their pocket.

i'm surprised by all the negativity here.

1. apple is going to sell tens of millions of iphones/itouch regardless of its sucess in the gaming world which is a pretty good market size to sell games to.

2. as evidenced by japan - mobile gaming is going to have increased importance in the future of gaming.

3. apple is "cool" and people like buying their products whatever they are.

frankly, apple is in a really good position to become a major player in the gaming market. all they need now is to get developers to take them seriously which i think WILL come.

kitler, while those are all really great reasons, it leaves a company like apple in a state like, "shit let's do it, where do we start".
Then we have another overpriced console that does the same thing as another one but forces us to pick between hardware as if we didn't pay enough in hardware as it is.

i think you're missing my point though.

the iphone/itouch has been out for 2 years (i think) without any apps store.  and yet people were buying it.  now suddenly those tens of millions of people (guessing here, idk the actual numbers) wake up one day and find out they already have a gaming device in their pockets. instant market.

okay sure, maybe the hardcorez wont buy one specificaly to game but it doesn't matter. nintendo has already proved that you can make billions of dollars a year selling games without the hardcorez.

games or no games - i will have an iphone this febuary once my current contact expires.  you can be sure that i will check out any apps the iphone supports and will gladly put out a few bucks for a quality title.  it's not as direct of an approach as when MS entered the gaming market but slowly and surely apple is going to become a major player because there is basically no way for them to fail: their product will find its way into consumers hand with or without developer support.

You're guess is way off. EGM's actual numbers on installed iPhone userbase was about 6 million.  Not "tens of millions." That's an awful lot less than the roughly 85 million DS's and 40 million PSP's.  And not everyone who buys an iPhone is going to be focused on the gaming aspects, so the number is likely quite a bit less than 6 million potential iPhone gaming customers. 

Although, and keep this in mind as it was revealed by IGN on the Wii channel some months back, Apple patented Wiimote-like technology.  But for what purpose?  Their success with everything-i has given them money in the bank.  I wouldn't be surprised if Apple stepped in to the gaming industry in the next generation.  If they tried to come out in the current generation, they'd be buried beneath the current 3 market owners.  They wouldn't have any recognizable or important 1st party wares to compete against Nintendo, MS, or Sony, and they'd no doubt have some trouble getting 3rd party companies to actually jump on-board because they'll all already have millions invested in Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony.

No doubt, they're using the iPhone to test the waters.