Console Makers Worry Over Apple's Growing Competition 281
The NY Times is running a story about the effect Apple is having on the console gaming market, making Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo worry that consumers will be satisfied playing games on devices that aren't necessarily focused on gaming. Quoting:
"The concerns highlight an accelerating shift away from hard-core games, which have traditionally driven console sales, to more casual ones played on cellphones. Of the 758 new game titles shown at the Tokyo Game Show, 168 were for cellphone platforms — more than twice as many as in the previous year. ... Apple's assault could even eat into sales of home consoles like Nintendo's Wii, Sony's PlayStation 3 or Microsoft's XBox, as game-playing quickly becomes centered on cellphones. Many in the industry say that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft need to explore more radical changes to their businesses, including an emphasis on software rather than hardware and a better way for users to download games. 'As a platform, the cellphone has the biggest potential, because everybody owns one,' said Kazumi Kitaue, chief executive at another game maker, Konami Digital Entertainment. A family with three children might buy just one Wii or PlayStation to share, but those children will probably have cellphones of their own and download and play games, Mr. Kitaue said."
We're doomed!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We're doomed!! (Score:5, Insightful)
I only wish my bank account was as doomed as Nintendo's must be right now.
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I knew the Wii was only a fad! Just remember, you heard it here first!
[/joke]
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Just like the C64 was just a fad. You still see people using one of those these days?
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It depends how much time you spend away from home...
I also have a DS, but i usually forget to take it with me, i also have an ipod but again i always forgot to take it... I've had a phone for years, which i always remember to take with me so now when i find myself on or waiting for public transport, waiting for food, waiting for someone etc, i play games or listen to music on my phone. I would have my phone anyway, no point carrying around multiple devices.
Apple recognised that the increasing power of moder
Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machine (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, have any of these people actually played any games on it? They are uniformly quite terrible. The lack of physical buttons is simply too big of an obstacle. Sure you can do some interesting stuff with the accelerometer, but at some point you want to be able to mash some buttons to kill the baddies and the in this regard the iPhone simply sucks ass.
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:5, Funny)
I just hope that console games start becoming ports of mobile phone games. That would be justice for how they've ruined the PC game market.
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Ahh!...bitter, are we? ;)
Well, truth be told, I agree - although many console ports(like TF2) still play better on PC.
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Even now, it's ten times easier for a group to join a random server than it is to join a specific one.
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, have any of these people actually played any games on it? They are uniformly quite terrible. The lack of physical buttons is simply too big of an obstacle. Sure you can do some interesting stuff with the accelerometer, but at some point you want to be able to mash some buttons to kill the baddies and the in this regard the iPhone simply sucks ass.
You're obviously not the target demographic. I'm guessing that, in other discussions, you've said similar things regarding perceived shortcomings with the Wii.
The target demographic that's mainly interested in "mash[ing] some buttons to kill the baddies" is the group that's currently buying XBox 360s and Playstation 3s - and, based on sales, it's pretty obvious it's a significantly smaller group than the group buying the Wii and/or interested in playing short games that you can pick up for a short while and set down afterward. And, in the end, overall sales is really pretty much the only thing any of these companies care about.
I am not meaning (or attempting) to demean your opinion. I'm just pointing out that it's unlikely you're a reflection of the audience Apple is after.
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:4, Interesting)
Besides, while the Wii has had phenomenal sales, the other two consoles have still gathered an audience - numbers that most markets would BEG to have. The positive thing about the button mashers is that they're growing (gaming is very mainstream, even in the Xbox/PS3 variety) and they don't stop spending money. I mean, if the Xbox 360 and its failure rate (which may or may not be fixed; who knows) can lead the charge through the High-Definition consoles in this economic decline, what will get those gamers to stop spending money?
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Another thing I wonder about the Wii as compared to the other consoles is the attach rate, meaning how many games the average owner has. That is actually where the console makers really make money. They make little to no money (and even lose money often) on the hardware itself. They make money because each title sold pays a license fee. It also indicates how well the owners like their gaming experience over all. After all if you buy a system and only get two games for it, good chance you aren't enjoying it
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:4, Informative)
Your observations are off. Here's the numbers from vgchartz.com. First column is units of sw worldwide lifetime, second is attach rate.
PS3 153,204,847 6.24
Wii 334,499,258 6.26
360 254,496,331 7.93
So Wii's attach rate is basically tied with PS3.
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:4, Insightful)
They make little to no money (and even lose money often) on the hardware itself. They make money because each title sold pays a license fee. It also indicates how well the owners like their gaming experience over all.
The wii was making profit on the hardware from day one, they only just now lowered the retail price three years after it's initial release.. they have been making lots off hardware alone
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I have a feeling that demographic doesn't really strike a lasting profit, however. Nintendo is slowly falling and has been for a few months - could the Wii's marketing be wearing off?
That's the problem with good games: if the player won't get bored with them, they won't buy a new one. Perhaps we should start paying attention to Open Source games, like Freespace 2 [wikipedia.org] and Warzone 2100 [wz2100.net].
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Yeah, open sourced games. Both of those were commercial at first and only opened later, those games have paid professionals working on their creation. Most unpaid open source games are horribly derivative and usually ugly and unintuitive.
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I find a lot of commercial games have extremely buggy network play these days... I never got to finish a multiplayer game of rise of nations over the internet, because one player would always drop out for some reason and bring the whole game to an end.
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, I find that the mashing buttons to kill the baddies falls squarely on the Wii, while beer drinking FPS tournaments are 360's big thing, and heavily priced bizarre gameplay falls in the ps3 arena.
Regardless, the biggest issue seems to me to be basic economics. What is the cost of your entertainment. I've been interested in picking up a next gen console since the wii came out. I've played all three extensively, and at the moment, their price point is nearly identical. But for me to get one game out of a system, I need to drop about $300 for the base system WITHOUT any games, and $50 for a relatively old game (Mario Galaxy is still $50, 3 years in). With high quality games like Braid coming out on steam for $5-$20 the comparable initial drop of $20 to start playing and $350 to start playing is an obvious choice. Needless to say, despite the fact I've typically enjoyed console gaming for years, the higher price point for individual games combined with the cost of the systems (which haven't dropped to levels that I feel the purchase is justified), makes people who share this opinion swing away from them.
I still haven't swung toward cellphone games, because generally, across the board, I haven't found many of them that are on par with games from the super nintendo. Tetris maybe, but I haven't found a good solid push for thought provoking games for a cell. The biggest challenge for me is that the cost of old classics is finally pushing up into the current 'new game' price point that I have no interest in.
I'm mostly hoping this commentary will shed some light on the mindset of a, possibly atypical, non-hard-core gamer.
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Where are the mod points when you need them?
You are right on spot. The truth is that Nintendo through the Wii, decided to base their entire market on the kind of people that don't really love games, and now they are worried because the non gamer market prefers non gaming devices, well I'm shocked, not
Seriously why did they expecting different? Are their marketing teams so retarded?
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The target demographic that's mainly interested in "mash[ing] some buttons to kill the baddies" is the group that's currently buying XBox 360s and Playstation 3s - and, based on sales, it's pretty obvious it's a significantly smaller group than the group buying the Wii
The 360 and PS3 combined have outsold the Wii. When you look at game attach rates, even more so.
Maybe the market they mean.. (Score:2)
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:5, Insightful)
If I want a great multiplayer strategy game with complex rules and takes a lot of time to learn, I'll play that on my PC or Mac, if I want to blow a couple of hours in a racecar or fragging aliens in an FPS, then my console is pretty good at that. If I am on the bus and have 30 minutes, I might play Assasins Creed or bejewled on the iPhone. (or listen to a podcast, or watch a TV episode, or listen to music etc)
Sometimes I even play board games with my kids and soccer outside. All sorts of games have their place and I hope none of them goes away.
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If I want a great multiplayer strategy game with complex rules and takes a lot of time to learn, I'll play that on my PC or Mac
Such games are much bettter played tabletop with a bunch of friends, with cardboard tiles and wooden, plastic or metal placeholders.
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I tried playing soccer inside a few times. It's just not a good idea.
It is an excellent game shop (Score:2)
It is terrible for us but some people loves it, especially casual type games rock with touchscreen.
Anyway, I think Sony and others are missing the point. It is how easy it is to buy a game, almost globally! You feel like gaming, you just enter your password and the game is there. No serials, no credit card numbers, no physical media, no J2ME warnings (don't ask), no IMEI entering while purchasing... IMEI is the most evil DRM system ever BTW... Buy a game tied to your device IMEI, device dies, game is gone t
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Sony hasn't missed the point, because that's how the PSN store works. Haven't you used it?
Oh, Look! (Score:2)
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Absolutely agree! And so do these guys! [icontrolpad.com]
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Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone who has been a gamer for a few decades now, as well as a happy iPhone owner, I can attest to the fact that the iPhone does indeed do video games well. That said, it obviously can't handle the same sorts of gameplay that consoles can handle, and, conversely, it can handle some gameplay that consoles are poorly-built to handle.
Consider Zen Bound [zenbound.com]. It's certainly a casual game, but the premise (using your fingers to rotate a 3D block of wood or metal in order to wrap a rope around as much of the shape as possible...just look at the video at the link) simply doesn't work well on any of the consoles at the moment. I was skeptical at first, but once I saw a few gameplay videos and then got my hands on it, I was sold; the game demonstrates a new form of play and is remarkably entertaining for such a simple concept
Or consider a game like Eliss [toucheliss.com]. Again, remarkably entertaining and yet incredibly simple in concept and execution. Both of these rely heavily on a multitouch interface (Eliss in particular) that none of the other consoles or handheld game devices could possibly hope to match (neither of these have a chance of working on the DS or Wii). When iPhone developers play to the iPhone's strengths, it really shines. When they try to shoehorn gameplay that was made for an entirely different medium, such as a console, into the device, it shows (and it usually sucks).
Really, it all comes back to what it has always been about: making games fun. Quite a few of the developers and console makers have gotten caught up in the shinier graphics, yearly releases on spent franchises, and other such nonsense that they've forgotten what real gamers (read: not "frat bros") want, which is to have a fun time. 8-bit games weren't fun in spite of the graphics. Rather, the only thing that the developers could feasibly work on to differentiate themselves was the gameplay of their product, so they were forced to innovate if they wanted to produce sales, and we saw quite a few brilliant and entertaining examples of new gameplay from that generation. The introduction of 3D with the 64-bit era really changed the game as well, since it allowed for new forms of gameplay, but since then, the industry has stagnated and very little has really changed in terms of the types of gameplay that we can expect.
The iPhone, for all of its foibles and drawbacks, is offering developers a chance to get in on the ground floor with something that's fresh, different, and entirely game-changing. And I'm not talking about the iPhone itself, but rather about multitouch. I honestly believe that multitouch has the potential to provide a more entertaining interface than that of any current console, so while the iPhone may be relegated to "casual" games for now (and it is), it certainly has the potential to explode in the "hardcore" market if a few hardcore titles showcasing multitouch come out. What those titles would be, I have no idea, otherwise I'd be building it now to make my millions.
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:2)
I own a DSi just for a few months. I bought 3 games for it (Knights in a Nightmare, Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, and some popular Brain Game with
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Except that the PSP is a TERRIBLE game machine.
Seriously, have any of these people actually played any games on it? They are uniformly quite terrible. The lack of a touch screen is simply too big of an obstacle. Sure you can do some interesting stuff with an analog stick, but at some point you want to be able to draw a line across the screen to show it where you want you character to go and in this regard the PSP simply sucks ass.
I agree, that in baddy mashing games, the touch screen sucks ass, but I've
Re:Except that the iPhone is a TERRIBLE game machi (Score:3, Informative)
Don't think so... (Score:3, Interesting)
First, I'm more of a casual gamer. Frankly, the $60 titles generally don't hold my attention anymore and I've found the Arcade (xbox 360) titles to be much more fun. I think I've kind of gotten sick of the "wow look at the graphics!" "genre".
That being said, when I do want to sit and waste an hour or two playing games, I want to do so in the comfort of my living room with a nice 46" screen. Not a 3 inch screen. I want to play with a controller built at least somewhat ergonomically, not one that feels like my thumbs are going to snap.
I will concede that _any_ new game "system" will pull customers away from some other company to at least some degree, but I seriously doubt the top players need to worry about the iWhatever taking over their industry.
Although, diversifying in your target market(s) isn't a bad idea.
Also (Score:3, Insightful)
Does the iPhone have many (any?) games that aren't of the simple silly cellphone variety? While there's a market for games like that, no doubt, there is also very clearly a market for games with more depth to them. Some of the top selling games are ones that have a good deal of complexity to them (the Sims being a great example), not the sort of thing that competes with a cellphone game.
Also, as you noted, the iPhone really isn't a competitor for a console just based off of the fact that it is a handheld. S
Re:Also (Score:4, Insightful)
Myst for the iPhone [cyanworlds.com]
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Then I realized I could get a DS + GAMES GAMES GAMES for much less than the PS3 + No Games. I've not regretted it.
But then, I'm also happy with the Wii I bought myself for Christmas last year, and RockBand2 I purchased last week (it's way cheap cause they're making room for RB: Beatles). I've not missed having any of the NextGen Consoles, even those they look simply fabulous.
I think
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Well I think looking at a DS vs PS3 is a little silly, given that the PS3 was by far the most expensive console when it came out. Regardless, so long as you get a platform with games you like, that's all that matters.
In general, I just don't see competition between cellphones and consoles though. Sure the games are cheaper but that is because they are cheaper in both senses of the word. They cost less because they are simplistic and have low production values. You cannot sell a game that had a lot of work g
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Some of the top selling games are ones that have a good deal of complexity to them (the Sims being a great example), not the sort of thing that competes with a cellphone game.
I don't mean to burst your bubble but a few days ago I was browsing the iTunes Store and noticed the Sims 3 is available. I don't know how that version compares to the PC version though.
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Does the iPhone have many (any?) games that aren't of the simple silly cellphone variety? While there's a market for games like that, no doubt, there is also very clearly a market for games with more depth to them. Some of the top selling games are ones that have a good deal of complexity to them (the Sims being a great example), not the sort of thing that competes with a cellphone game.
Simple answer, yes, big games companies are developing big games for it. When you put a machine more powerful than a wii
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Heaven forbid Trent Reznor says anything interesting or valid, but his interview with Joystiq discussing the Video [joystiq.com]
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It isn't about the graphics. Consoles have gotten to the point where everything is good enough. In the past, there was such a noticeable difference between console generations -- Atari vs NES, NES vs Super NES, N64 vs PS2. This generation has reached a point where graphics are good enough that there is not a huge need to upgrade in the mind of the consumers. Hell, the fact the people are still buying PS2 show that last generation is good enough for many people. Don't get me started on the Wii.
Game play cou
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i would agree, i have played mario 64 on a ds and a 42 inch screen. even tho the graphics aren't great, being on such a small screen for an immersive environment just doesn't do me much good.
offtopic: undo moderation pretty please?
Whew. (Score:2)
And here I was worried that I could play games without an annual contract to pay a telco every month. I mean, yeah, I could get an ipod touch, but wouldn't that be just like getting a DSi? Who would I pay every month? Gosh!
Everyone agrees that flatulence apps are not only worth paying for, they make having the AT&T contract worthwhile. Look how many people play WoW, clearly games are only fun if you're paying month to month, right?
I agree ! (Score:3, Funny)
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If all you care about is games, Apple makes the iPod Touch. Same apps, same processor, no monthly fee. Oh, and it's an iPod, and also a nice little mobile internet tablet.
If you're in the market for an iPhone, you're probably already paying a fair amount per month for mobile phone service. Granted, it would be nice if it was available without the unlimited data plan, but that's another discussion.
And games for the Apple handhelds are generally in the $1–$10 range. Most of them are at the low end o
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Great point, where's the Boo rah over flash games? I don't see the ever flowing exodus toward flash games, do you?
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The delta between a voice plan and a voice plan with iPhone data is $360 a year. If someone replaces a voice-only plan/phone with an iPhone they're paying $360 more a year. So your cute numbers ought to be $200 iPhone + $360 data service + some price for games. The point of the article was that people can actually play satisfying games on a device that is always handy and already own. I have a DS Lite but I only play it when I'm at home or take it on vacation because it's too big to fit in my pocket, I play
Game subscriptions (Score:2)
I don't have an iPhone. I have an almost-luddite Samsung phone. When I had a Sprint PCS no-frills cell phone, many games had monthly subscriptions. I found that to be annoying. I found it annoying when I switched phones, several games I already paid for(no subs, just a 1-time fee) couldn't be played on my newer phone.
Maybe just 1 cell platform for games isn't such a bad idea.
It will eat the portable market, maybe (Score:2)
Iphone and the Ipod touch at best can compete with the portable market (unless apple figures out how to make the devices plug into a 1080p HDTV)
I don't think the I-game is eating away market share because it's Apple, I think it's the entire package tied in with it. It's a gaming device, and it works with Itunes.
All Sony/Nintendo has to do to compete with this is write a DS/PSP Itunes sync program, and the problem's solved. Change the image of the DS/PSP from being mostly gaming devices, to a multifunction
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Or more to the point and a little better comparison.
When your kid wants to play games and say they have both an iWhatever and a Nintendo DS for example, which do you think they will pick up to play?
Having a game to play on your phone is great when you're at the doctors office waiting, but when it comes down to it, there are much better, dedicated systems, for playing mobile games. Just the control system on the iWhatever sucks for long term gaming and then you take into account the fact that game developer
This is news to them? (Score:2)
"consumers will be satisfied playing games on devices that aren't necessarily focused on gaming."
So you mean like a PC? Back when the home computer market was growing and the Atari was collapsing I'm sure the console industry was wondering the same thing. Once they took back the market in the late 80s (thanks Nintendo) it seemed that as more people got multiple PCs in the home that a shift back to using devices that aren't consoles as our primary gaming systems seems inevitable.
iPhone/Touch app's store is l
Price (Score:4, Interesting)
I think what apple is targeting is the cash strapped parent who kids want multiple mobile devices. Though $200 for an iphone or iPod touch might seem out of line for a kids first device, if it can serve as the personal computer for browsing, email, and reading, can text, take pictures and movies, and play some games, it might seem a good alternative to phone plus a psp plus a music player, etc.
Like the mac,which made graphic processing affordable, the advantage is likely to be short lived. It should be simple to get something like a PSP and add a phone and some other trinkets. If that can happen,then people will likely migrate to it. One thing that I am surprised to see is that MS is not integrating the Windows Mobile, xbox, and zune technology into single product. The fact that we are talking about MS Windows 7 and a new Zune to me is incompressible. A Zune that has and HDMI port, but cannot play games, is simply silly.
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Most people do not want to pay $300 for a video game console, and then $10-20 a week to rent games, or $50 to buy.
Most people, perhaps not.
But by the numbers, most households... yes, yes they do.
Umm, the input sucks on cellphones (Score:2)
The iPhone's touchscreen is nice for some applications. But for general purpose gaming, you can't beat a regular controller. DS-style controls are unlikely to make an appearance on standard cellphones and this will keep gaming on cellphones to a minimum.
False Dichotomy (Score:2, Insightful)
The real important facts are the one's that this article leaves out, like that in 2008, only 462 total games [videogamesblogger.com] were shown, where as this year, 758 new games where shown. This is an increase of 62%! So in reality, Cellphone games have only increased 40% compared to the rest of new video
They'd better not (Score:3, Insightful)
including an emphasis on software rather than hardware
They'd better not, because that's where their competitive advantage is. The only reason anyone would play on a console instead of on their phone is because of the hardware (including bigger screen, the controllers, etc). If they focus only on software, then eventually any type of software that can be made for a console can be made for a phone.
Misleading Headline (Score:2)
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I'm liking my MacBook as a replacement for what I've been using over the past 15 years. I can still boot into XP if needed, but I'm not a gamer any more and only use Windows to run Fast Stone for basic batch image manipulation, AutoCAD and NavisWorks.
how about better mac hardware for gameing at bette (Score:2)
how about better mac hardware for gameing at better prices>
a imac at $1500 with 9400m (on board video) and 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (laptop) is not cutting it. not only that the video chip will have a hard time with having a good fps at 24-inch.
the mini at $599.00 with 9400m and a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (laptop) # 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo [Add $150.00] and only 1gb of ram.
$1,799.00 to get 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (laptop) and only a GT 120 with 256MB memory? a ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB is only $200.00 mo
Don't count on it (Score:2)
Apple likes their hardware the way it is. There is clearly a large market for a consumer level tower system, as Dell, Gateway et al sell MANY of them and Mac users have asked for one for years, but Apple won't deliver one. For whatever reason, they are convinced their lineup is as it should be. They aren't going to be introducing something that is more game oriented.
Also as a practical matter, Apple doesn't seem to understand the computer games market very well. Gabe Newell (Valve) said that every few years
Right to worry (Score:2)
Nintendo's solution (Score:2)
Older Games on Japanese Phones (Score:2)
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo (Score:2, Insightful)
Console games are taking over from TV and Movies (Score:2)
Anything that brings new people to video games will ultimately be good for everyone who makes games.
The quality of the entertainment is what matters. Quality will continue to win. Always. That's why games are taking over from movies and (to a lesser extent) TV. Great games and bad movies.
Phone games can only "win" if they are a better entertainment experience than console games. And that's not normally going to be true.
Newspapers and crossword puzzles and card games better watch out for the iPhone thou
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The point of phone games is that they are portable. I can see how they may threaten handheld consoles, especially with the increasing number of qwerty keypads (standardisation) coming into existence.
Through the looking glass. (Score:5, Funny)
Anybody else here grow up during the 70s? 80s? 90s? Anybody else find the idea of Apple being any kind of force in gaming utterly bizarre?
Not saying it won't happen, or that Apple can't be a force in whatever field... but this is like "Ferrari, Lamborghini Worry Over Growing Competition From Oldsmobile" or something.
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Anybody else here grow up during the 70s? 80s? 90s? Anybody else find the idea of Apple being any kind of force in gaming utterly bizarre?
What about Apple being a force in the portable music player market (from an 80s perpective, that's "competing with the Walkman")?
What about Apple making telephone handsets?
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Yes, all that.
In general, Apple having more than a tiny sliver of market share in anything still kind of weirds me out...
I'm also still a little startled to see Microsoft products not run roughshod over market segments despite sucking (Windows Mobile devices, PlaysForSure, Zune, and to a lesser extent X-Box).
Bathroom market (Score:4, Insightful)
Little Mb!kuto from Zaire eagerly awaits his games (Score:2)
'As a platform, the cellphone has the biggest potential, because everybody owns one,'
Say, does it smell like oblivious privilege in here?
Multitaskers! (Score:2)
I think this just continues the trend that started with the PS2, which doubled as a DVD player way back when they were fairly new. I own a 360, and use it for DVDs and Netflix streaming video in addition to a gaming machine. Right now I'm considering replacing my Samsung BluRay player with a PS3 Slim.
I've taken to calling my iPhone a "DAD": Do Anything Device. I don't use it for gaming, but the number of things you can use it for grows daily.
Dumb article is dumb (Score:2)
Apple doesn't even make a device which competes in these markets. Some people may like their games on the iphone/cell phone - but at the end of the day, it's an inferior device to game on. Some gamers might use these devices to get a quick fix when they're away form home, but serious gamers will always go back to their PC or console.
Just to put this in perspective (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Just to put this in perspective (Score:5, Insightful)
Based on every other product Apple has ever produced, a game console from them would be sleek, stylish, cost in excess of $900.00 (us), have only 3 titles available(each of which would require you to repurchase the title when a patch came out), and a controller with only button. Of course it would have an alternate means to use the button, but it would require you to press the option button on the console itself while trying to press the controller button.
That is the iPhone.
Right timing, correct form factor (Score:2)
Nokia were too early with the Ngage. Plus they produced a gaming phone that nobody really wanted to own, it wasn't a nice looking device.
Apple have made a desirable device, many games can be downloaded on the device or wifi and it has a large screen. The control mechanism isn't exactly ideal, but it doesn't seem to put off people.
It wasn't long ago that so called industry experts were saying the games on the iPhone were gimmicy and accelerometer/touch screen games would never catch on.
The major worry? Pricing. (Score:3, Interesting)
The Nintendo DS version of Civilization Revolution was $30 at release. The Xbox 360 version was similarly priced.
The iPhone version is currently $5. It's essentially the same game. The controls aren't as good - and no one is saying that the other two don't have their place, because you don't always want to stare at a tiny screen. Developers have tried to put games for $10 on the App Store. While there's the occasional success, most of the time the reviews are filled with 1-star "$10 for a phone game?" reviews, and the game quickly shoots down the charts and out of the rankings and "Featured" lists.
Peggle for PC is still available for $10. It's the same price on the Xbox 360 (Live Arcade).
The iPhone version is $5.
The iPhone is causing people to shift their view as to an appropriate price point at the same time that many companies are trying to rip out a third of an otherwise complete Xbox or PS3 game so they can sell the rest as "Downloadable content" to squeeze that extra $5-10 out of each buyer. That, I believe, is terrifying to the marketing droids and finance people that actually run these companies.
Embrace and extend (Score:3, Interesting)
There is nothing stopping any of the console makers from embracing the iPhone, and turning it into an extension of the console experience rather than a competitor to it. (Well, okay, something might stop Microsoft, but Sony and Nintendo have nothing to lose.)
With a single app the iPhone becomes a full color smart controller, with mutli-touch, motion sensing, and a built-in camera.
Allow developers to incorporate that functionality into the iPhone versions of their console games, and you enable a seamless gaming experience from home (where the epic action happens) to the larger world (where you mini-game, grind, or play in smaller-scale settings).
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From the iPhone. Did you even look at the summary?
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How does an iPhone compete with an XBox 360 or a PS 3 as the summary implies? It doesn't.
An iPhone at best competes with a DS, and even then, it's a sad comparison. It only really works if you put on your iPose blinders.
You don't even need to read the summary to see that this article is totally retarded.
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It is not the quality of the platform in question but rather the developer mindshare. iPhone is building up greater mindshare so more developers will aim for that platform. It does not matter how good your console is if nobody makes games for it.
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So wait, you're saying the iPhone market is like the video game market, pre crash of 1983?
I'm talking about where tons of speculators hopped in the market to cash in on the hype and ended up creating a bubble that popped, causing an angry babylonian god to appear and wipe out over half the industry?
That's not like the iPhone market at all! It's all about quality and craftsmanship!
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causing an angry babylonian god to appear and wipe out over half the industry?
Please tell me the more about that god. I want to build an altar to him/her. Does he/she do Myspace and Facebook too?
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It is not the quality of the platform in question but rather the developer mindshare. iPhone is building up greater mindshare so more developers will aim for that platform. It does not matter how good your console is if nobody makes games for it.
More developers doesn't mean good or even better games. Also, trying to make it sound like consoles have no developers is silly.
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It's not about mindshare, it's about return on investment. A competent developer working with a competent artist can produce a successful flash game or an iPhone game in a month or two. Producing a PC or console game takes a few hundred people a year or two. A console game needs a thousand times more income to break even, but only sells for ten times more than an iPhone game so you need to sell a hundred times more of the console game for the same ROI. If you can sell an iPhone game to a tenth of the pe
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By taking away market share. It's the same way bicycles compete with cars, not the way BMW competes with Kia.
If you already have a gaming system in your pocket. Games cost $0.99-$10, and they're all 'fun' there will be a certain segment of the population that used to get a 360 that will just stick with the phone. Just as there are certain people who swear by PC gaming as being the 'best' because you can use your 105-key keyboard.
Now extend that a bit further. You now have a TON of developers that know the i
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Not to mention an Apple game console would probably lack standard features such as multi-player.
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Is that what's called a "flame" these days? How times have changed.
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You're looking at it backwards, but I respect your opinion none the less.
The iphone and ipod are phones and music players first and foremost. The XBox and PS3 are Gaming systems first and foremost. Their secondary functions are the icing on the cake. So to reitterate, if you want a device to make phone calls, you don't get something else that happens to have phone capability as a secondary function, you get a phone. If you want a music player, you don't get a pedometer that can also play some mp3s, and
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iPhone 3GS bestselling phone in Japan [electronista.com]: I'd say that the iPhone is gaining popularity in Japan.