Posts Tagged ‘handheld’

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Apple and other mobile platforms like Android might change the big three in gaming consoles faster than people think.  Gamasutra has an article about Apple’s assault on the gaming industry.
Besides recently becoming the most popular configuration in the entire iPod lineup, the iPod Touch “has become the most popular portable game player in the world,” Jobs chimed. “The iPod Touch outsells Nintendo and Sony portable game players combined. It has over 50 percent market share for both the U.S. and worldwide.”
Small caveat is that the DS still has the most units but that will only last for a month or two more:
  • DS = 125m
  • iOS devices = 120m
  • PSP = 62m
Game sales
  • DS = 718m games sold
  • PSP = 252m
  • iOS games = 1.5B games and entertainment
But as far as devices Apple will surpass Nintendo this quarter as Apple handily beats them each month currently.
I believe that the Apple TV is also a notch in the future to console gaming, replacing the console with a thin client that can be controlled by handheld devices such as iOS devices. This may or may not happen but I think it will and it may be an Apple TV feature in the next year or two.  The Apple TV is an iOS device.
However, as Mike Capps commented to Gamasutra in our interview immediately following the event, “Right now, I can display from my iPad to my Apple TV on a big screen TV. How far away are we from ,’That’s my game console, and it’s displaying wirelessly to my television set?’ It’s not far away.”
What will that mean? What form will it take? How soon will it come? All unanswerable. But Sony, Nintendo, and even Microsoft are all officially on notice as of today.

Do consoles anchored to a TV suddenly seem like the old way?

To the argument that the Appstore is full of bad games, it is, but it is also the secret to their success.  Apple built a platform and let indies in.  Apple was very critisized about their approval process but Playstation, XBOX, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP all have more harsh approval processes and dont’ even let indies begin developing until they approve.  The result is higher quality games on the latter devices however it is the same problem the web brought.

I think that was Nintendo and Sony’s downfall in that they didn’t jump on the downloadable store AND allow indies in.  There are lots of fart apps that come with allowing almost everything but you also get stuff like Angry Birds, Monster Dash, Real Racing, 2XL, Gameloft etc.  I’d rather let everything in and let the charts decide what is best rather than it be a closed market to indies from even trying.  But that comes with lower quality games for the most part except those standouts that might have been rejected on Nintendo or Sony platforms. 99% of the Appstore is crap but 1% is awesome, that 1% might be bigger than the quality games that make it to the PSP or DS.