iPhone Shakes Up the Video Game Industry

Hugh Pickens writes "Troy Wolverton writes in the Mercury News that in less than a year, the iPhone has become a significant game platform, but its bigger impact could be to help change the way the game industry does business. 'It's got everything you need to be a game changer,' said Neil Young, co-founder and CEO of ngmoco, which develops games solely for the iPhone. With a year under its belt and an installed base of iPhone and iPod Touch owners at around forty million, the iPhone/iPod Touch platform has eclipsed next-gen console penetration numbers and started to catch up to the worldwide penetration of both Sony's (50 million) and Nintendo's (100 million) devices. Wolverton writes that not only is the iPhone one of the first widely successful gaming platforms in which games are completely digitally distributed, but on the iPhone, consumers can find more games updated more often, and at a cheaper cost per game than what they'd find on a typical dedicated game console. While an ordinary top-of-the-line game for Microsoft's Xbox 360 sells for about $60, and one for Nintendo's DS about $30, a top-of-the-line iPhone game typically sells for no more than $10. With traditional games, developers might wait a year or two between major releases; ngmoco is planning on releasing new versions of its games for the iPhone every four to five months. 'You have to think differently,' says Young. 'It's redefining what it means to be a publisher in this world.'"

Comments

Attention Span = 0

[stewbacca]

Thanks to the Zero Attention Span Theater Generation we get vapid video games (as opposed to substantive ones of old) and 15 second "music videos". Now get off my lawn.

Re:Attention Span = 0

[Gizzmonic]

Thanks to the Zero Attention Span Theater Generation we get vapid video games (as opposed to substantive ones of old)

Substantive games like...Pac-Man and Tetris? Or maybe you meant those complex, nuanced tabletop games like Solitaire or Cribbage. Seriously, do you really desire to play Xenogears while you're waiting in line at the bank? Think of the implications that has for your battery life. Sorry, I agree that everyone needs to work on their attention span, but putting long, complicated games on the cell phone just doesn't make sense.

Re:Attention Span = 0

[MBaldelli]

Thanks to the Zero Attention Span Theater Generation we get vapid video games (as opposed to substantive ones of old)

Substantive games like...Pac-Man and Tetris? Or maybe you meant those complex, nuanced tabletop games like Solitaire or Cribbage. Seriously, do you really desire to play Xenogears while you're waiting in line at the bank? Think of the implications that has for your battery life. Sorry, I agree that everyone needs to work on their attention span, but putting long, complicated games on the cell phone just doesn't make sense.

Christ on a drunken rampage, you have got to be kidding me. What is so bleeding hard to stand in a bank line all of at most 10-20 minutes for doing business at a bank that you have to be twiddling your thumbs or playing with the gravity controls on your iPhone to play a game?

Or 8 - 15 minutes in line at the grocery store?

Or 10 - 20 minutes at the cinema (that's if you don't pull an order online for those tickets and take at most 5 minutes at the will-call line)?

Must your attention be constantly filled with something on a 2 inch screen with pretty graphics?

You talk about people needing to work on their attention span, but what they really need to do is work on their patience , which you didn't remotely cover when playing advocate in this argument here.

Yeah, right

[Anonymous Coward]

As a mobile developer, I cannot deny the strength in numbers of iphone users. That said, I really don't see how any company is making enough money to keep afloat (unless the company is just a handful of people). Also, I'm sure a significant number of people are only using the free apps and using their phone as a phone, rather than as a game console.

Likewise, I very much doubt that a gamer is getting an iphone just so that they can play all of the latest iphone games.

If the company can succeed doing this, great. If people want to buy their games every 5-6 months, wonderful. But it's not shaking up the industry at all.

One line says it all

[Xistenz99]

"a top-of-the-line iPhone game typically sells for no more than $10" That's because the top of the line game on iPhone is no where near comparable to the new games and new ports of those systems

iPhone is God

[PopeRatzo]

iPhone Shakes Up the Video Game Industry

Apple and the iPhone have become the Chuck Norris of high-tech fashion accessories. There is literally nothing that the iPhone (or Apple generally) cannot do: No industry that the iPhone can fundamentally transform. I have seen articles saying that the iPhone has "transformed" everything from transportation ("it has GPS!!") to interpersonal relationships ("it has a phone!!!") to gaming ("you can play Sudoku!!!!") to education ("You can read books!") to shopping ("you can buy stuff!") to journalism ("it has a camera!").

You name the industry, profession or realm of human activity, and there is an article somewhere that was born in the mind of an Apple publicist or fanboi that explains how the iPhone is going to completely transform it ("there's an app for that!!"). And thank heavens we have media and "news" outlets that are dedicated to spreading the Word about this transformative product.

And each and every one of these articles will have a quote exactly like the one found in this article: "It's redefining what it means to be a publisher in this world."