Okay, so the iPhone stole the Nintendo DS’ portability, touch screen (albeit capacitive instead of retro resistive), creative input methods (like blowing into the mic), and emphasis on casual, on-the-go gaming. And since all’s fare in love and console wars, is it really a surprise that the big N has decided to follow Apple’s lead — and the growing Google Android Market, RIM BlackBerry App World, Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace, Palm (Pre Store?) conga line — with the launch of their own direct download DSiWare application store alongside their new DSi hardware.
Sure, DSi doesn’t have ubiquitous internet connectivity like 2G or 3G enabled smartphones, so it’s WiFi only (WPA if you can dig it out of the settings). You also have to buy credit in ridiculous $20 chunks (some things never change, eh, money-grabbers?), but this will no doubt appeal to gamers who want new stuff now, now, now, and developers who want to excise the the usual 75% retail+licensing cut, along with manufacturing, storage, shipping, and other physical media related costs.
Ars Technica has an excellent article up with all the details and developer comments, and it’s certainly worth the read.
Our question is, is the iPhone enough for your casual gaming needs or do you also carry a DS (and/or PSP) everywhere you go, and will DSiWare make you more likely to carry a DS in the future?
We’ve talked about this several times before on TiPb, but Jeremy Horwitz over at iLounge takes an interesting journey via the game Peggle, what it’s release looks like for the Nintendo DS at $30, how retail sales prices break down, and what it might mean for iPhone gamers if they’re forced by market conditions to give us a barer-boned $5 version.
We know Apple said “free apps stay free”, so there’s still no model for demos to get people hooked, but the idea of ScaleWare, so a low introductory price can be followed by a few level/feature pack upgrades is something we’re fond of. Horwitz rightly points out that if devs over use this, however, it could make things worse:
just imagine the commercials showing someone actually playing a full Sony or Nintendo handheld game alongside someone clicking on iPod touch dialog boxes to the sound of a cash register.
iLounge likes the idea of regular games (i.e. cheap) with the in-app option to upgrade to deluxe versions (i.e. full price). Sounds good to us. We want great games on the iPhone, and we’re willing to reward developers with fair prices for their work. Are you?
There’s so much going on in iPhone gaming right now, it’s almost as hard to keep up with that as with iPhone 3.0. Two large industry shows bookend much of the current news, iGames Summit and Game Developers Conference (GDC). With multiple awards, great discussions on the future, and a slew of upcoming product announcements, we figured we’d take a moment and round things up…
TiPb has been following the iPhone and gaming for quite some time now. Now that the iPhone OS 3.0 announcement has come and gone, we’ve learned that there are 1000 new API’s for developers in the SDK. This will not only help developers make better games but it also shows Apple is deadly serious about making the iPhone a true competitor to Nintendo and Sony within the handheld market. What a bright future there seems to be for iPhone gamers.
South by Southwest (SXSW) 2009 is trendy, twitter-filling, and the source of increasingly social iPhone news releases. What’s going on this year?
FaceBook connect comes to the iPhone. Sure, they may just have redesigned their home pages to basically become Twitter with invitations to apps you don’t want and events on continents you can’t attend, but behind the scenes:
You can now use Facebook Connect on your iPhone in the same way you can for a website. Simply download any application featuring Facebook Connect and log in using your Facebook account from your iPhone. Then, you’ll be able to easily find your Facebook friends. They will be able to see the same profile information as they can on the site, controlled by your privacy settings. You can also share what you’re doing with your iPhone applications with all of your Facebook friends by publishing stories back to your profile.
an application for the iPhone that enables people to capture and share the moments of their lives, as they happen, as a story. Through location, photos and text updates, users can easily turn everyday life experiences into lasting stories that can be remembered, organized and shared. Each user controls exactly who can view their story, ranging from public to private, and includes the option to broadcast status updates on Facebook and Twitter.
SGN Launched Agency Wars, a game tied into — you guessed it! — social networking and Facebook connect!
Agency Wars is capitalizing on the classic spy genre and offeres massively multiplayer game play so you can become the most deadly spy around.
TUAW is also live and on location at SXSW 2009, and have posted up coverage of the iPhone Gaming Panel.
Confession: I bought the Watchmen comics as they came out. I remember my jaw dropping as I finished issue 11, and the interminable wait for issue 12 to come out. That, along with Dark Knight Returns informed a lot of my early thinking about deconstruction, dialog, and dramatic endings (yes, back then the actually considered and built to endings!). I’m a huge fan of writer Alan Moore (Wikipedia link) in general (Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta, and too much more to name.) And while the derivatives of those works, including the movie adaptions thus far, are the palest of imitations, and while Moore himself has begged, pleaded, and finally insisted his name be removed from any and all adaptions, the geek in me is still mind-blown to see the video above (and that’s as close to a Harry Knowles intro I’ll ever write).
By using its patent-pending CloudMMO technology running on Amazon’s Cloud, Last Legion were able to create a persistent world for the iPhone in the Watchmen universe. Players can roam the city streets, chat with total strangers, battle with people on the other side of the country, and ride the subway to another part of the city to continue their crusade against crime, all in real-time. Watch what happened when developers from Last Legion Games brought Watchmen: Justice is Coming to our office recently, and hit the Read More link for the full press release.
So, who’s interested in not only Watching the Watchmen — but living in their world?
Apple really, really thinks the iPod touch is the funnest ever, and just so they’re sure we know it as well, they’ve released a second 2nd gen iPod touch gaming music videoTV commercial.
TUAW’s commenters pointed out Apple has even gone to the trouble of setting up a special App Store gaming page just for the games shown in the Franz Ferdinand covered commercial.
Will these commercials help sell iPod’s to more gamers? Take a bite out of the upcoming Nintendo DSi pie? Or, like with the iPhone, is focusing on apps taking away from the core purpose of the devices (media + internet)?
Hey iPhone users, not enough excuses yet to abandon real life and run down your battery? Never fear, EA is here! Seems the uber-developer is readying a release of Sims 3 for the iPhone (and iPod Touch). Says TUAW:
it’s set for an almost simultaneous release on PC, Mac, the iPhone and the iPod touch. The popularity of iPhone apps may have done what Mac gamers couldn’t do for years: convince developers that releasing their games simultaneously on Mac and PC was worth it.
PC version set to ship June 2. No release date for the iPhone version yet, but EA claims Summer 2009.
MacRumors is reporting a… well, rumor, that Apple may introduce a new section to the App Store for “premium” games with a price point at (or above?) $19.99.
The rumors suggests WWDC in June as a likely introduction event, and it would be exclusive to big publishers and allow them to side-step the $0.99 domination of cheaper Apps (some awesome indie fare but also a lot of… well, CrApps) that suck all the air out of the current Top lists.
This could actually be an interesting solution, allowing for both the cheap games many want to consume, but also providing a viable business option for developers who want to invest more resources into bigger games. (Grand Theft Auto: Cupertino Chaos anyone?)
I’d be willing to pay more for really good, in depth, immersive, highly optimized, and expertly rendered games, and think it will continue to push the iPhone and iPod touch into Nintendo DS and Sony PSP territory.
Apple’s made a point to highlight gaming on the iPhone and iPod touch (the so-called funnest iPod ever), and six-months in, games still routinely dominate the App Store Top Ten lists. But what about outside the Apple ecosystem? How are iPhone/iPod touch games doing in the greater gaming ‘verse? TUAW lets us know:
the iPhone more or less owns the finalist list for the 2009 Independent Games Festival Mobile category. 11 of the 14 contestants aren’t on the Nintendo DS or PSP — they’re built and played on the iPhone and the iPod touch.
While Apple’s taken (justifiable) hits for policing their store, we’ve heard before that it’s nothing compared to hoops developers need to jump through to get in on the PlayStation or Nintendo action. Add to that a phenomenal SDK, great hardware, and that little App Store icon on every single iPhone and iPod touch (no UMDs or cartridges need be found here), and it makes for not only a killer offering, but pretty much brings the next, next generation in gaming home now.
