While Apple continues to market the iPhone as a 3-in-1 device -- web, phone, and iPod -- it's clear that Jobs has a 4th market clearly in his sights. It's no accident that EA and Sega were both selected to demonstrate their skills with the
iPhone SDK during last week's press event. Now Gameloft, the worldwide number one mobile game publisher in terms of revenues -- has committed to developing games for the iPhone. "Over 15 titles" are expected in 2008, in fact. Oh iPhone, is there anything you can't do with your 3D processor, multi-touch display, and 3-axis accelerometer? Oh right, GPS, 3G data,
corporate Exchange, A2DP Bluetooth audio, MMS, ... you get the idea.
Update: John Carmack -- co-founder of Id Software -- just
commented that, "We (Id) have put in our application like everybody else." So yeah, it'll
play Doom... officially this time.
posted March 10th 2008 6:53AM
New to Engadget are we?
Thomas
Michael,
Thomas Ricker has been writing crappy story summaries for at least the past few years, so I don't know what you're talking about.
As far as the quality of his postings, well I'm not really a fan.
Sad to say, in their never-ending quest to be hip and pithy, many of the editors here just churn out schlock. Ryan and Peter are the only ones who can reliably pull if off.
Back to the story at hand, I'm pretty surprised by the number of developers who seem anxious to see what they can do on the iPhone. Looks like there may be cool stuff coming out
A-GPS from Verizon really sucks. 3g from Verizon depending on browser and system also sucks compared to WiFi.
I used my Voyager with VZnavigator to find a bookstore, it declared the nearest Spanish bookstore was on 81st when the most famous and oldest was on 14th street.
My iPhone lacking 3g and more importantly GPS found and located a route within a minute. I gave up my Verizon service this week.
Gaming though on the iPhone from the demos was much better than I thought. I think Nintendo will have problems from Apple. It will not be that difficult from to control the games from the demos Jobs showcased.
Gaming is a money maker for traditional phones but with Apple it could be huge. The screen quality is outstanding. With Apple's approach to supporting 2007 phones with the new 2.0v OS there's a huge market to keep supplied even when the A-GPS/3G/Video/Zeiss lens 2008 iPhone comes out after the June OS SDK formal release.
I couldn't program my way out of a paper bag, but I finally watched the SDK presentation 2 nights ago. Last night. Holy crap, I was blown away with what they were doing with it. Graphing framerate in realtime, and then picking the low points to see what system calls were being made? Awesome.
And seeing John Doerr speak... Blown away would be putting it mildly. Honestly, my first thought was "what is Steve Jobs blackmailing this guy with?" I mean, Steve makes money by hyping Apple and selling products. John Doerr makes money by BEING RIGHT, and he seems more excited about the iPhone than even Jobs is. I have a hard time believing Doerr is anything other than way off when he says "bigger than the PC," but he didn't get rich by being wrong.
i dont know why everyone is comparing the iphone games to ds/psp. im sure the games will just be enhanced versions of regular cell phone games.
Did you even see Sega's part of the demonstration? If not, go look it up on youtube and watch it. Pay attention to what the guy is saying. The version of Super Monkey Ball they had running on the iPhone is not a cell phone game. It's a full console game running on the iPhone. They even had to bring an additional artist in just to rez up the artwork to match the iPhone's output capabilities.
Everyone is comparing the iPhone to the DS/PSP because it is COMPARABLE to them now. You obviously didn't read this. EA and SEGA are developing REAL games for the iPhone. Not just ports of Doom and Tomb Raider, but real current-gen handheld console gaming.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vxjmTtZwK-E
Iphone SDK Sega Super Monkey Ball demo
Have to agree with "yeah yeah" on this.
Games that make good use of tilting the device will do well, but I just don't see it translating well to the great majority of games well.
Tactile controls are needed to seriously take on PSP or DS, IMO. That said, PSP and DS (in particular), need to put more emphasis on selling games on the web, and obviously they won't do as well on games that make good use of tilting.
Much like the DS and also PSP, Apple will do well with games that make good use of the unique controls and characteristics of the hardware, but I don't see it surpassing or even coming close to surpassing traditional console sales. It will just be another choice in the casual gaming arena, IMO.
I agree with the general feeling of enhanced phone games.
It won't be replacing a DS/PSP, but those demos were no ordinary "cell phone" games. Super Monkey Ball alone was easily the best "cell phone" game I've ever seen, and a perfect fit for the motion sensor input method.
I have an iPhone and a PSP. They both have a place in gaming for me. My iPhone will be used for quick bursts of play, nothing big kinda like all cell phone games are. While my PSP will see the likes of Silent Hill:O, God of War:CoO, Patapon, plus the many PS1 games being ported to the PSP.
The lack of REAL buttons doesn't make the iPhone ideal for games, I want to be able to SEE the WHOLE screen when I'm playing, with a touch screen my fingers will get in the way and theres only so much control that is possible with the accelerometers.
Yeah no surprise herer. I mean all the rumors of apple releasing their own console. If you watched the presentation for iPhone SDK the dude was pushing the idea of 3d sound from the iPhone... basically apple might just pull it off. With iTunes's digital distribution and stuff, awesome!
Every time I see a hand holding an Iphone, I think of Zoolander and David Duchovny...
meh, i dont see how this will grab more than the pop-cap/pocket sudoku market share.
Gods damn it, I didn't reply to this, I replied to a different one!
heh, my trick worked.
He said "sites". Then he fixed it.
Just allow the hook up of a PS3 controller over bluetooth. BAM!
"Sites" was correct, Thomas! Look it up!
No. It's not. I have looked it up. Sights are on guns, sites are on the interwebs.
Having just completed Day Of The Tentacle on my WinMo phone thanks to the magic of ScummVM, I'm hoping LucasArts cash in on the abundance of touch screen and release their classic adventure titles for iPhone, WinMo and Nintendo DS. Guaranteed cash moneyz.
... yes, because everyone will be rushing out to buy a $500 phone instead of the $110 DS and roughly equivelantly priced PSP, both of which have infinitely better controls. On another topic, my phone played Doom from the first day I got it, back in July (HTC Touch).
Did I just witness a nervous breakdown?
FFS this is a phone that does lots of great things, all the new extras from the SDK are icing on a very nice cake, who gives a shit if it takes PSP or DS marketshare.
pffffftttttt, yeah right...
It's John Carmack, not John Carmac.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1454928825
Check this out.
One thing a lot of you are forgetting when talking about the costs of owning an iPhone over say a DS or PSP is that I'm guessing that nearly all of the games will work on the iPod touch, which works out alot cheaper than the iPhone when you take into account the lack of a contract. Plus rumour has it that the touch may be coming down in price soon.
I work for a games testing company and we're looking seriously into the iPhone as a few of our clients have planned on supporting it as a gaming platform.
And whilst people are comparing the iPhone to consoles, think about this, by the end of the year the iPhone and touch will have roughly the same market-share as the PS3, and how many people have bought one of those primarily for Blu-Ray? So devs will be hoping it kicks off as it should mean a cheaper way to get games out and maximise profits.