iPhone marketing big shot Greg Joswiak has pegged iPhone as "the future of gameplay", while Sony and Nintendo's dedicated gaming portables are "in the past".
"The gameplay I think has surprised a lot of people, because it's not just the casual games. There are real 3D games, and it's hard to imagine we're only a little over 100 days into it," said Joswiak.
"There are already so many games and as we look at it, to us it really seems this is the future of gameplay. Whereas a lot of these devices [Nintendo DS and Sony PSP] are more in the past," he boldly stated.
It's all down to the digital distribution of the phone's games, reasons Joswiak. "A big part of that is not just the device itself, which is easier to carry, and has the touch display and accelerometer which is great for gameplay, but it's the electronic distribution of the apps as well.
"That changes everything. Whereas apps on other devices have to be delivered primarily physically, they cost a lot more, £25 versus almost all the games cost £5 [on iPhone], because [publishers] don't have to worry about licensing and manufacturing hardware," he told T3.
It's also an open platform on which anyone can develop apps (although approval is required). Imagine an apps store for DS or PSP.
I don't think you can just walk into the gaming industry like this...people know Nintendo make good handhelds and Sony has its fans. I think that price is always an issue, cheap games do attract people, but I do think that it only works to some degree. To me a Ł5 download game is just too cheap for me to think it's a full, good game that I could really enjoy.
It's been rumoured for ages Apple would enter the gaming industry...but I think it will take more than some Ł5 on the iPhone...
niksalt, DS and PSP's sales may be huge, but the fact that the iPod Touch/iPhone is being marketed as an MP3, MP4 and games machine is making the iPod Touch/iPhone sell loads as well (not sure on exact figures).
Also, before the 2.0 firmware update, millions of people had an MP3/MP4 player and suddenly, it's a games machine. I reckon Apple had been planning this since the iPhone launched.
Aren't Nintendo planning a similar distribution model for DSi software?
Anyway, "future of gameplay" my bottom. Even Big N realised you can't do everything with motion or touch, so both Nintendo devices still have D-Pads and buttons, something the iPhone is missing. Touch screen D-Pads are simply rubbish to use.
I doubt most iPhone owners will buy more than a couple of games, and they will be novelty purchases.
Ignore Apple at your cost...and he's absolutely right about the ease & convenience of being able to just download games on a whim...god knows I've done it enough myself with my various mobiles!!
Argh, every time I see things like this I just have to have my rant!
I have an iPhone, but I don't use it for gaming because, frankly, IT FRICKIN SUCKS! I would never pay for any kind of game on that piece of crap, all I use it for is music, internet and comms. It will never be a good gaming platform, Apple just has this view that it is awesome because it has an App store full of dung!
Argh, every time I see things like this I just have to have my rant!
I have an iPhone, but I don't use it for gaming because, frankly, IT FRICKIN SUCKS! I would never pay for any kind of game on that piece of crap, all I use it for is music, internet and comms. It will never be a good gaming platform, Apple just has this view that it is awesome because it has an App store full of dung!
Well Henry with all due respect, I really think you're being inexpliacbly short sighted.
My iPhone is now the hub of all my business needs, it honestly saves me so much time now, but I also own a Nintendo DS & Sony PSP but even though they're called portable devices, in reality not at all!
Truth is the iPhone games (especially monkeyball for me) is fantastic, so can really see Apple making a move on the clumpy "portable" games only devices...time to move on and it looks like Apple seems to have a phone to challenge the portable market.
I'm sure the iZombies will unquestioningly pay to play games on a phone or a mp3 player, the same way they'd pay Ł40 for a single iPotato, but anyone not in the cult will want to play games on a games system.
Apple + games = steaming pile of merde. Mostly because Apple think style is far more important than content, and for games that's just not true.
I'm sure the iZombies will unquestioningly pay to play games on a phone or a mp3 player, the same way they'd pay Ł40 for a single iPotato, but anyone not in the cult will want to play games on a games system.
Apple + games = steaming pile of merde. Mostly because Apple think style is far more important than content, and for games that's just not true.
Yeah funnily enough, that's what Sony said about Nintendo and Microsoft last generation, and look where the f**k they are now...lol!!
I'm sure the iZombies will unquestioningly pay to play games on a phone or a mp3 player, the same way they'd pay Ł40 for a single iPotato, but anyone not in the cult will want to play games on a games system.
Apple + games = steaming pile of merde. Mostly because Apple think style is far more important than content, and for games that's just not true.
Here here! Never a truer word spoken, iPhones are bought by people with more money than sense. Ł99 on a monthly contract of Ł35... Ł520 for the first year?! are you taking the p1ss?
If you have a problem with what I said, please feel free to keep those objections to your self.
Apple know f**k all about games. I love my ipod but iTunes is total crud and a complete rip off. Ie: if you lose your music, no matter backed up or what, you have to buy it again. Yes. this may also be music companies wanting more but I'm sure Apple will get a hefty cut of it all.
I really can't stand all these style accessories, whether its phones or whatever. People go mad for it and those who will pay loads of cash for half assed games are just idiots
The iPhone will always be seen as a Phone firstly, so using a phones main functions (which sadly now involves camera, Internet and more-though all not as competitive as games). Games will always be seen as an add-on, in the same way my PSP will be used primarily for games, and the music is secondary.
Phones have come a long way since the N-Gage I know, and those games were more expensive but I believe the same principle applies.
I think Apple are going to do what Apple does best. Anyone remember when they said Apple Macs would be in everyones homes and not PCs?
This is just scaremongering, the people who can afford to *run* an iphone proberbly dont care wasting Ł5 on a depthless game.
What next? Perhaps that Wii rip off they have planned with their motion motion controller patent?
I also laugh at Apple because the Iphone is a mix of touch screen and accelometer technology. So Apple's primary research has been the Wii and DS. So at this moment they are pioneers of nothing technological and just bandwagon jumpers.
*awaits appleman game and mascott to duel with mario, sonic, master chief, (does PS3 have one?)..*
This apple guy probably dosn't even play games. Why dose he think games on the iphone are sold cheap? Well, I will tell him why. They are cheaply made.
Anyway...Dose he realise what he is effectivly saying? He is basicly saying phone games are the future for handheld gaming...Errr... thats what I thought.
What next? Perhaps that Wii rip off they have planned with their motion motion controller patent?
I also laugh at Apple because the Iphone is a mix of touch screen and accelometer technology. So Apple's primary research has been the Wii and DS. So at this moment they are pioneers of nothing technological and just bandwagon jumpers.
*awaits appleman game and mascott to duel with mario, sonic, master chief, (does PS3 have one?)..*
Sony want Sackboy as their mascot...hasn't been used much yet however.
As for what else you said-is the Wii technology new? Touch Screen isn't really new anyway(in games it is) but motion sensing has been aorund ages. old PSone racers could have a motion sensing controller, old shooters had a motion sensing gun. Nintendo hasn't done anything original, they just realised they could expand it. Very little is original now actually.
Apple are so up themselves it's untrue. Microsoft spent a long time and a lot of money building up a reputation as a games publisher and developer of tools (Direct X) before making a move into the market. Apple's gaming pedigree is absolutely laughable, maybe the statement is issued from the alternative universe where Halo was released on the Mac and Microsoft didn't steal what would have been the best Apple exclusive ever from under their noses.
Touchscreen is great accelerometer is fairly lame and then what happens when (god forbid) you need the control of a D-pad, fire buttons or analogue stick?
The iphone as a games machine is a very limited prospect.
Portable gaming is pointless in my book. Sure these sell alot but that doesn't mean you still don't look like a frightened coward sitting on the bus or subway hiding behind your game.
considering how many ipones, ipod touches apple have sold in the last 12 months, this could be a big earner in the future for software houses making games for the system. Apple are the biggest selling music company in the world now, they are the biggest tv and movie download service, so to add games to that is that big of a leap.
Like the guy said its down to digital downloads and the fact that they only work on apple hardware and their image is of uberkewl tech for the coffee drinking peeps, who get down with their ipod. Me personl is very happy with is 30gb classic machine, will get a touch in time, but not for along time to come.
Someone should give that man a serious and bracing reality check. the facts are thus
ps3 really expensive third place Xbox was expensive second place Wii cheapy cheap selling like the proverbial hot ones.
Psp started expensive distant second place Ds cheap my granny (84) has two!
So the question is where exactly does he expect the shall we say "not quite affordable" i phone to sit in the above list. The man is singing pie in the sky if he thinks gamers will flock to the iphone en masse just because itunes has huge quantities of shovelware to pawn off to innocent people.
I buy a cheap phone for callimg mates,Ibuy psp for games on the move.apple dont have a clue coz they think the pod was a great thing that everyone will buy a podphonegame thingy?
Apple are underestimating the gaming industry. They haven't been close to it for years and although we should respect their vigilance, I don't think they have a clue...
Portable gaming is pointless in my book. Sure these sell alot but that doesn't mean you still don't look like a frightened coward sitting on the bus or subway hiding behind your game.
You've got a bleak outlook on the world haven't you? They sell so well because they are fun and you can take them places more conveniently than other consoles. You won't catch me lugging a 360 over to France when I visit the inlaws, nope it'll be a DS with Chrono Trigger all the way.
As for frightened cowards? well what about people who read books at bus stops, text on buses, read papers at the pub...are they all cowards too? or just passing the time by entertaining themselves or interacting with their friends as opposed to staring at the floor thinking about their impending day at work?
niksalt, DS and PSP's sales may be huge, but the fact that the iPod Touch/iPhone is being marketed as an MP3, MP4 and games machine is making the iPod Touch/iPhone sell loads as well (not sure on exact figures).
Also, before the 2.0 firmware update, millions of people had an MP3/MP4 player and suddenly, it's a games machine. I reckon Apple had been planning this since the iPhone launched.
I'm noy denying that the iphone/ipod touch can have a potentially huge market but for Apple to come out and claim that it will be "the future of gaming" is a startlingly arrogant claim.
You can't tell me that Nintendo and Sony will be simply brushed aside as he's suggesting. Touchscreen technology, minus the other required elements for a good piece of gaming hardware (d-pad, real buttons, shoulder buttons etc) are pretty awful at supporting any kind of game that has real depth. I should know, my latest mobile phone is touch screen and whilst it's great as a phone, it's utter pish for playing games on.
So what happens to your gaming session when, for example, the phone rings (since it is supposed to primarily be a phone)? Does it pause automatically or do you let it ring while you pause it yourself?
Because there's a lot of game situations when you can't recover from a pause (mid-jump platformers, I'm looking at you) and if you have to let it ring it's going to annoy everyone around you and potentially make you miss the call.
I still don't get the obsession with having one device that does everything. I'd rather keep my phone for (shock) phone calls and my games consoles for (shock) playing games.
That was the first thing that sprang to mind when I read it. Just a marketing man hyping up his product. He is hardy going to say 'Hey guys, here's my product, it's s**t but buy it anyway'
I can't stand Apple. I have an iphone as I needed a new mp3 player and the all inclusive data actually knocked about Ł10 off my previous contract for 1200 minutes.
However, as swishy-swooshy touchy-screeny as the whole endeavour is, I can't help but die slightly inside every time I put those bloody white headphones in my ears.
Apple have an advantage over PC's as the OS and hardware are designed exclusively (same as iphone compared to symbian etc), but consoles have this, so they lose the advantage there.
In most areas, Apple are just a poor man's B&O - average products, over priced because of percieved 'cool' design. My PC is a huge, hulking, powerful box and I wouldn't swap it for some wafer thin, piece of white plastic that runs off it's owners' smugness for the world.
From what I've seen, there's about 3 games that look 'passable' on the App store. Most of them tilting race games. Without any physical buttons for input save the Home button, the iPod Touch and iPhone rely on tilt and touch alone, which, is not the future of gameplay. That's a dozen times more casual than the DS; the DS has both touch and physical methods of controlling so it lends itself to casual and also 'core' games, the iPhone doesn't.
And the App store isn't that 'open'. Apple have a ton of red tape and it really isn't as 'open' as Apple love to claim it is.
In short: yeah.. no. Apple - it's not a game device.
If it did represent the future for handheld gaming, then we're in the s**t.
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