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

[Anonymous Coward]

tl;dr

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.

Re:Attention Span = 0

[haystor]

Some people must relieve the boredom of being in their own presence.

Re:Attention Span = 0

[Sancho]

I'd rather be talking to people, but people look at you funny if you smile and say 'hi,' let alone try to strike up a conversation.

and then

Thanks for playing, fuckbean.

I think we may have pinpointed the problem with your social skills....

Re:Attention Span = 0

[rho]

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.

One man's patience is another man's wasted time.

For one, why am I standing in line? Lines usually indicate a lack of planning on the part of the line-maker. There's not much in this world that actually requires a line except to provide a terrible job for the otherwise unemployable. So already my time is being poorly utilized. Two, of what benefit is there to staring at the back of the head of the person in front of you? Here "patience" is a word that means "can't think of any better way to spend your time and is therefore satisfied by the mere act of breathing". Three, to ward off the usual rebuttal, I have little to no interest in chatting with the people around me. Most people are stupid, crazy, or some combination of both. For them, having a chance to talk to me, a genius, is an unexpected joy in their mean, puny lives. For me it is an unbearable hardship, as I'm regaled with dubious tales about their last hunting trip or some damn thing.

Now I agree that somebody who requires a video game to divert their attention is probably also witless, but at least they're quiet and don't talk to me. However, using an iPhone (or iPod Touch) to read Proust while I'm in line is one of the few ways I can endure close quarters with the proles, ever since they banned quarterstaff duels at First National. I'll stick the earbuds in as well, even if I'm not listening to music, so I have an excuse to ignore conversation starters like, "You know that Obama isn't actually a US citizen, right?"

Slashdot

[Spatial]

The only place where you can measure the rate of iPhone stories in hertz and get an integer.

Re:Slashdot

[shentino]

you suck at xml

Re:Slashdot

[sexconker]

Pay no charges to messenger. For quick service, reply by bearer.

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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.

Re:Yeah, right

[s73v3r]

There is, however, a much lower barrier to entry on the iPhone/iPod Touch than there is for the DS. Nintendo requires you to get approval for your game before you start, and you have to be a registered, paid developer to get a look at their Dev Kit. In part, this is to try and keep the overall quality of software on the platform high, and it has been since the NES days.

Re:Yeah, right

[sootman]

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.

Bingo. Some percentage (90%? 50%? 10%? 1%?) of 40M iPhone/iPod customers are play games on their devices, but for the PSP and DS I'm pretty sure the numbers are 100% and 100%, respectively.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's shaking up the industry, but on the other hand it's clear that it is a substantial market, and a different kind of market. You're no longer bound to make huge games for millions of dollars and hope it's a hit. You can make smaller games (and yes, this certainly favors smaller shops) for less money that sell for smaller amounts but come out more often and still do well.

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

The price is right

[Duradin]

One thing (Sony especially) that other companies need to take note of is the price for these digital only games on the iPod.

Ten dollars or less is a good price range for a game you can't lend or sell. Paying current full retail price for a umd psp game for a digital only download that you can't move off of your system is an idea that isn't going to play out in Sony's favor. The DSi still has a card slot so there's still the illusion that you still will be able to own your games.

saturation point

[rarel]

Am I the only one who's starting to be completely saturated by iPhone stories posted left and right and how it's awesome and shiny and great?
I swear it's like the damn thing is going to save the world. Even for nerds there must be other topics of conversation, right?

...Right?

I think I've reached the point of hype backlash. I might have been somewhat interested in the iPhone at the beginning, but now I'm just tired of seeing it everywhere.

I bow to the Apple marketing team though. They are doing a truly excellent job. Honestly.

Re:saturation point

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Am I the only one who's starting to be completely saturated by iPhone stories posted left and right and how it's awesome and shiny and great?

Nope. But the iPhone's not alone. I'm f'n tired of Pre stories around here. I've heard enough about FireFox, too.

I think I've reached the point of hype backlash.

I think that point happened for most ppl here around a year or so ago when a line of people materialized at an Apple store a month before the 3G was announced. Everybody assumed it was people just waiting in line for the new vapor phone. It was believable. Untrue, but believable. Now people spout reasons not to like the phone, regardless of whether they're true or whether or not they really matter. (I cannot cast stones here, really. I did this exact same stuff with the PS3 back when it was announced.)

I bow to the Apple marketing team though. They are doing a truly excellent job. Honestly.

Eh, I personally think it's their product design team. They essentially made the PocketPC we've been wanting since the late 90's. The success of a product with a good web-browser and an ubiquitous internet connetion was inevitable. Both Microsoft and Palm utterly failed to put those two ingredients together. Apple does it, and blammo, everybody can see the potential of it. With potential comes imagination. With imagination comes hype. I think most of the iPhone's hype has come from the people interested in it.

The games are gimmicky

[MBGMorden]

As an avid iPod touch user (and iPhone if Apple ever gets one onto Verizon . . .), I must say that the vast majority of the games I've seen for the platform is just too gimmicky. The system has plenty horsepower for simple stuff that might be a good diversion (think Pacman, Asteroids, Space Invaders - or even some more powerful stuff - I recently downloaded Myst for my iPod), but the touch screen interface is just terrible for gaming purposes.

I just don't see it cutting into Gameboy sales that much. On the other hand as an APPLICATION platform the little bugger is amazing. Sure it's an "iPod" suggesting music player (which is does indeed do, and do well), but my iPod touch is about the best damned PDA I've ever used. There are apps for everything I need, and much unlike most cell phone browsers of old (including the one on the Blackberry Curve that I have for work), the included version of Safari actually works for almost any site I want to visit. I might have to zoom in/out to see some things, but I can use the page at least.

To tell the truth mine has replaced 95% of what I would use a laptop for. My laptop now has become truly a "portable computer" like the old ones that you just lugged around. I'll take it on a trip to use in the hotel room, but for when I'm actually out and about, in a coffee shop, etc, the iPod is smaller, lighter, and is always with me. Battery life is great too.

All in all I truly do see them as revolutionary devices, just not so much on the gaming front.

Different markets

[FLoWCTRL]

This is silly; mobile devices and "full size" gaming systems have to be considered different markets.

I can write documents on my iPhone, but that doesn't mean I won't be buying word processing software for computers any more.

Re:Question for you gamers

[vertinox]

I don't own any of these devices, but how do these games compare? Is a top-of-the-line iPhone game as cool or complex as a top-of-the-line DS game? Isn't it a different kind of game -- certainly a different game experience?

I played Cooking Mama lite on the iPhone and couldn't really tell a difference between it and the DS version. Same for the "My Little Pony" ports.

What? Why is everyone looking at me?

Re:Neil Young Says ...

[sexconker]

iPhone + iPod Touch: ~30 million. Phone/iPod.
PSP: ~48 million. Games device/media player.
DS + DSi: ~105 million. Games device.

Re:Yeah Right!

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

comparing iPhone games to PS3 or XBox360 games is like comparing a gnat to a pterodactyl. Yes they both fly, but one is a beast while the other is a nuisance. This article holds no merit.

There's a joke in here about which one of those has gone extinct...

Big deal!

[wytten]

...and I'm not being sarcastic, if my 11 year old son is any indication of what is happening around the country.

He saved all his birthday, christmas and allowance money for months to buy an iPod touch and spends way
too much time playing games on it. Most of the games are free or only cost a couple of bucks, meaning he
can get near-instant gratification without having to save $50 to buy a console game. He uses it almost
exclusively as a game platform, even to the point of using a clunky old mp3 player for music, in order to save the
iPod touch battery for game play.

Re:Neil Young Says ...

[sexconker]

Numbers I got were from March. I didn't watch Apple's conference and couldn't be bothered to look it up.

Either way, my point still stands.
Apple is FAR from the DS, and has NOT positioned its products as game devices.

Hell, they don't even have real buttons.

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."

Re:iPhone is God

[Golias]

None of the features of the iPhone are revolutionary, except one:

They made their features convenient and user-friendly enough to be actually useful.

The Other Shoe

[Gary W. Longsine]

In addition to the rapid growth of the platform's installed base, the flood of interest in iPhone gaming has some interesting characteristics:

• game developers are learning Objective C, Cocoa, and libraries like Core Animation,
• game developers seem to like the Apple platform and tools,
• games are being ported to and developed for OS X, which is really "Mac OS X Mobile Edition".

Together, these substantially reduce the marginal costs of, and the psychological barriers to, porting games to Mac OS X. Apple could do a few things to shake the gaming industry up even more.

• License Mac OS X and/or iPhone OS X to another game console maker for next generation consoles.
• Extend the reach of Apple TV into the gaming console market by adding some horsepower, features, and accessories.
• Buy one or more prominent game content makers, like, oh, say... Blizzard Entertainment, perhaps.

Those sort of moves might seem unlikely, but might not be all that far fetched. Licensing OSX to a game console maker is even conceivable, since it doesn't present the threat that licensing to clone makers did to the Mac. One such licensing agreement would vault Cocoa to the top gaming platform.

Apple could absorb a few game content providers without smothering the life out of them, as apparently the Microsoft acquisition of Bungie threatened to do, until Bungie managed to burst out of Microsoft screaming, "liberation!"

Re: no buttons?!

[lgw]

If I were Nintendo, I'd be tired of all the "wee" jokes by now. They should name their iPhone-fighter the "Portable Nintendo Entertainment System" to avoid any such innuendo!