platform has some major disadvantages. One is the oft-mentioned complaint that apps are difficult for users to discover, unless Apple highlights the app or it gets lots of sales, which drives it to the top of the App Store rankings. The other potential problem is a recent update to the iPhone OS which enables peer-to-peer play for multiplayer games, in-game purchases, and interoperability with multiple external devices. While those will boost gameplay and lead to some exciting titles, they also carry a drawback to developers.
"What it means for developers is that their development costs will be going up," Meloni told the Standard. "Currently, it can take an iPhone game developer about 2-4 weeks, sometimes less, to get an app out, with development costs being minimal." That could change if additional features have to be built out and tested for each game, diminishing the lure of the iPhone relative to other platforms.
For now, though, Nintendo execs would be kidding themselves to ignore the threat the iPhone poses. Nintendo has a strong product with the DS and DSi, but Apple's portable platform has opened up the gaming market in ways that industry heavyweights are only now beginning to appreciate.
Image: Baston (Flickr/Creative Commons)
Comments
I love my new Dsi to death, but if I were stranded in the middle of the desert and could only have one device... come on Nintendo, you need to start fighting the iPhone, because a) you have all this untapped technology that you are too lazy to use, and b) it's already winning by a lot, and within 10 years, my bet is mobile games will be the new DS systems.
iphone will never be able to defeat Nintendo in the handheld gaming market, I will go as far to say that the iphone will never be able to achieve the level the PSP offers right now.
There's a couple things that stand in the iphones way of achieving this, 1st it's game developer support, apple lacks 1st and 3rd party brands worthy of mentioning. Even if Apple manage to get one big 3rd party brand e.g. like Activision , what ever game is produced will be crippled by the iphone's lack of controls. Which brings me to the 2nd thing against the iphone is its controls. DS is a game systems it's designed with controls to complement that. Iphone is a PDA/phone hybrid device it has all the essentials to make it a good PDA but it lacks a lot features to make it a good game system, lack of controls.
I have to disagree, palm_pre (hmmm, interesting name - I wonder why you have a negative iPhone comment...), there is excellent 1st party software for the iPhone (that would be stuff from Apple) - have you seen Mail, iCal, and Safari for iPhone? It rocks any other smartphone offering - especially the calendar. And they have what's regarded as one of the best poker games, launced with the AppStore last year.
As for 3rd party, this shows your lack of knowledge for what is in the AppStore today. You've got Electronic Arts, Namco, Capcom, Atari, Konami, id, Gameloft/Ubisoft, THQ, Square ENIX, SEGA, and then entertainment tie-ins from Sony, Disney, Universal, Paramount, etc. If these aren't "worth mentioning", then who is?
Sure, they aren't Nintendo - we won't get Mario on an iPhone; but you can say the same thing about the PSP. Hey, I love Nintendo - I've always preferred them in the "console wars". But ignoring the iPhone/iPod touch as a gaming platform is a serious mistake on their part.
But you know what? Even if there weren't any big-name commercial apps on the iPhone, I'd be okay, because a lot of what you get from the big guys are sequels. There is some seriously innovative gameplay going on with some of these "indie" apps. Hey - when you've really got nothing to lose, you can take bigger risks. Sometimes they pay off...
Fact is the author of this article is clueless. Their is a mindset to each device, I bet you many of those 43 million ipod touch / iphone owners ALSO own consoles, I'd really like to see STATISTICS ON THAT, because if they own both then they APPROACH them VERY VERY differently and that matters.
Some days I wonder how such things get published.
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