I like my phone, but I’ve never really thought about it as a gaming platform before now. I bought SuperMonkey Ball when it was released which is pretty good, and I’ve since bought a couple of the pool games, ...but the rest of the stuff I’ve downloaded has predominantly been free of lite versions of games. If I’m only going to play for a couple of minutes at a time then why would i buy full games? I wouldn't and don’t. There's so much to choose form already and the game sizes are so small that i can download several new games daily and spend the time that i do play games on my phone experiencing something new. That being said, it's definitely an interesting platform for developers, both professional and amateur alike. The guy that created iShoot
[LINK] has been making $20K+ daily (after Apple has taken their cut) and looks to be a millionaire by the end of the year. The game itself isn’t actually anything to write home about and yet he's already make a ton of money and is in a position now where he doesn't have to work for a couple of years should he choose not to.
Many of the games that have been available so far have been extremely basic or rudimentary cash-ins, but some developers and publishers have started to take the platform more seriously and games like the newly released Sway
[LINK] and Zen Bound
[LINK] are generating a lot of attention, both in terms of what the platform is actually capable of and in terms of the device as an actual viable gaming platform. Apple appears to have succeeded where Nokia failed so miserably. Since all of the iPhone's calling plans include unlimited data allowance the fact that the games are 100% digital downloads isn't a hindrance for anybody. The small game sizes mean that over wi-fi you can download 80% of apps and games in seconds. Some games like the awesome GTA close Payback clock in at a couple of hundred meg but over wi-fi that obviously isn't an issue. Anything under 10 meg (which is 80% of all the stuff currently available can be downloaded over 3G or EDGE, so it's easy to just download new games pretty much anywhere you are. It's a great business model.
I think i have maybe 12 or so paid for games, but none of them cost more than £2.99. Most actually cost either 59p or £1.19, and so it's not like the cost of software is off-putting. A few days in the top 25 can easily net a developer in excess of $100,000 which is why i have a game in development myself. It's one of the ways forward for the industry as a whole, and while it's certainly not going to replace physical formats for home consoles any time soon, ...it's definitely creating waves throughout the mobile gaming industry. Nintendo might still have a stranglehold over the handheld gaming world, but i'm not sure Nintendo are forward thinking enough to change with the times. I can't see them offering a 100% digital download service for handheld games any time soon. I don't even think (and correct me if I’m wrong) that games available on the Virtual Console can be transferred and played on DS. DSiWare looks interesting, but they need to be doing more as far as I’m concerned or they'll be left behind.
Sony however, i
can see embracing a 100% digital format. I'm hoping that the next PSP hardware revision is indeed UMD-free (as claimed by David Perry... and as hinted by SCEE's Ray Maguire in
THIS interview) and that all games are made available digitally. They've already started offering PSP games through PSN, alongside PSone games. They'd have to offer UMD games in parallel for the people that already own PSP's with UMD drives but it would create a solid basis for their next handheld console. Same thing with PSN titles. Those that can be made to run on PSP should. We already know that Sony are interested in bringing non-Playstation era games to PSN
[LINK] and so why not just make them transferable to and playable on PSP? The vast majority of people who use custom firmware, homebrew and jailbroken hardware start off by simply looking for ways to run emulated (Snes, MegaDrive etc) games.
I know Eddie has an iPod Touch, but what about the rest of you? I'm not really taking about DS and PSP games, but iPhone/iPod Touch games, the App Store and digital download services in general, be it XBLA, PSN or STEAM. In what ways do you think the increase in these types of provision will mould the future of the gaming industry?
<message edited by _Majik_ on Mar 13, 2009 15:32>