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

[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

[sexconker]

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."