Is iPhone going to be one of the most sought after gaming platform? It is hard to say yes, and equally difficult to predict no. However, the performance and popularity of the App Store in the past one month gives some indication that the iPhone apart from being on of the sought after smartphones may as well become a favorite gaming device.
Neil Young, who has more than 11 years experience in development and marketing of mobile games has no doubt that the iPhone is the NextG gaming platform. Young left Electronics Arts in late June this year to form ng:moco, a company focused on developing and sponsoring games for the iPhone. Recently during the iPhoneDevCamp 2, Young shares his view that the iPhone offers much more than what mobile gaming kings like, Ninetendo DS and Sony PSP offers.
The complications involved with other mobile gaming platforms are not there when it comes to the iPhone. Neil gives this short description of how things work with Ninetendo DS and Sony Playstation:
If you make a game today for the DS or PSP, you submit it to Sony, it’s manufactured, it goes into a warehouse, its shipped to a store, the customer goes to the store, they try to find it and they bring it home. Its [the iPhone] extendable. That software that you make for the PSP or Nintendo DS–once it’s done, it’s done. You’d have no opportunity to change it, you have no feedback loop with the customer. You can’t extend that software over time. Watch the full keynote address here.
With the iPhone the process is simple. Users and developers have all the conveniece ever thought of.
The App Store at present has 1839 applications, of which around 40% are games. The ratio is almost the same when we look at the top paid apps and the top free apps sections. The games are clearly a success, and the reason for that is that iPhone is an excellent gaming platform. It offers speed, a large enough screen, high quality graphics support, and it is truly portable.
And the potential is yet to be fully exploited. Just a month into its launch, the App Store offers great variety and a long list of fun games, but there can be little doubt that the best is yet to come.
