thomas fitzgerald.net

One of the things that became immediately obvious following Apple’s SDK event last Thursday was the potential of the platform for games. Mobile phones have long been a substantial market for game developers but the majority of cellphone games are extremely basic with limited graphics and functionality. However, the demos that Apple, EA and Sega showed off at the Cupertino event demonstrated that the iPhone was more akin to a games console in terms of its ability rather than that of the traditional cell phone.

If I were Sony or Nintendo, I’d be getting pretty worried about now. Both have highly successful mobile gaming platforms, Sony with the PSP and Nintendo with the DS. You may think that there is no way the iPhone platform (which also means the iPod touch) can ever catch the head start of the DS and the PSP, but unlike the existing handhelds the iPhone and iPod touch are being sold by the bucket load all ready for their existing purposes. What the iPhone, and consequently the iPod touch offers is something new and unique. Like the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii, the iPhone platform brings the potential of unique game-play with its multi touch interface and motion sensor that could revolutionise the portable gaming market. This combination of unique input methods could allow game developers to offer the same sort of unique game-play seen on the Wii and to a lesser extent the PS3. (incidentally EA’s upcoming spore looks remarkably like the Playstation Network game “Flow” for the PS3). The iPhone goes further than just its control system though, it offers what could possibly be the most ideal combination of hardware yet seen in a mobile game system.

Consider if you will the PSP. It is a respected and powerful system, but it’s tied (to an extent) to its disk based games, and lack of fixed internal storage. In fairness, Sony is slowly deploying games via the internet to the PSP but currently that requires a somewhat clunky connection to either a PC or a PS3. The iPhone on the other hand has the advantage of fixed mass storage. While you can add a memory stick to the PSP, developers can’t assume it is there, whereas with the iPhone they can, allowing a greater degree of flexibility. Coupled with the iPhones impressive screen, built in networking, bonjour for quickly discovering other games on the same network, you’ve got one hell of a system. The only potential downside is the lack of a traditional control surface, but that is easily overcome by clever programming or at the very least on-screen controls.

Another huge advantage of the iPhone platform is that of delivery. Apple’s App store offers a very powerful way to get your product in front of consumers. Like iTunes it will do away with the need for physical media, and having it also available over edge will push the term “impulse buy” to a whole new level. Imagine you’re sitting in an airport and your flight is delayed. You pop onto the app store on your iPhone and quickly find the latest game to download and relieve your boredom. Having everything available from one place, which is always available is a very big deal. The potential for this is huge. The big name game companies seem to realise it too, and EA’s endorsement is big enough to propel the platform forward.

The only potential downside I see is availability. Obviously the iPhone is not everywhere yet, but the iPod touch is pretty ubiquitous in its international availability. It remains to be seen though if the iPhone App store will have any kind of region coding or if it will be limited to countries where there is already an iTunes store. It will be a shame if they do that because it will hurt the potential for the iPhone and iPod touch to totally dominate the market in a short period of time. Either way though, expect the iPhone and its iPod sibling to be the number one mobile game platform by this time next year. That may sound ambitious, but no one expected the Wii with its “limited graphics” to reach the heights of its success either. I’m sure hard-core gamers everywhere are recoiling at the prospect of anything with an Apple logo entering their precious market space, but as the Wii demonstrated, there’s a huge market for games outside of the traditional “hard-core gamer”. Let’s not forget, the iPhone does a few other things too.