Palm suddenly means business with games, heading to GDC this year
By Chris Ziegler 
posted January 20th 2010 4:53PM
posted January 20th 2010 4:53PM
That was a quick turnaround, wasn't it? Palm wasted no time in retailing 3D games that are as visually engaging as the best the iPhone has to offer just as soon as it made the big announcement back at CES, and now it's taking things to the next level by heading out to GDC in San Francisco this March. The Game Developers Conference is -- as gaming goes, anyway -- what you'd call a Big Deal, so the fact that Palm is leading a session there to educate interested parties in its Plug-in Development Kit is a promising sign that these guys are taking the concept of webOS as an entertainment platform very, very seriously. Of course, it would've been nice to see this kind of drive about a year ago -- but better late than never.
@pjfish
Why are you bringing up Apple? He probably doesn't own an iphone. Fail.
@pukerocket
Oh, it's taboo to bring up a successful smartphone model in a discussion about smartphones? My bad...
@Hydra: Platform fragmentation - a great way to bloat and kill your OS. Don't believe me? Just ask Steve Ballmer about that one. I'd rather develop for a platform where I know my app will work on every device, rather than a platform where I know people are going to bug me about making a version for their freaking toaster. Think about that, Android fans.
@zullnero
Quite sad that people always feel a need to spit on other platforms and users in these kinds of articles. Seriously people, grow up. People use what's best for them. iPhone, WebOS and Android all have their positives and negatives and succeed where the others may not do as well. If you want to develop for WebOS, then do it instead of taking shots at other people/platforms. Complaining about the way Google does their business isn't going to get you anywhere.
I guess now we'll see how the multitasking holds up with truly hardware-demanding software. I also wonder about the notifications at the bottom of the screen, I imagine them to be annoying during gaming. Can they be deactivated?
Although I own an iPhone, I _love_ WebOS (except for the Pre which in my opinion is a really badly designed phone) and competition is always great. After all, it further strengthens the smartphone game market against the classical gaming handhelds. Now, Google, wanna join?
Ps3 has no games
palm has no games
maemo has no games
God I cant wait for the DS2 to come out and make people realize all this shitty smartphone gaming is worthless.
@fel except powervr on phones is going to knock ds2's ass to the curb within 10 months, and all thats needed is a high performance platform to run games on. that last part may have to come later, but the ds2 is pre-destined to near immediate obsolescence, by simple nature of moore's law.
of course, if nintendos proved anything, its that obsolescence is no barrier to dominating a market. i just dont think they'll keep the emergent ultra portable market cornered long, if at all.
@fel
Look at the DSi.
Nintendo is freaked out about the iPhone/iPod touch combo, so they're copying like crazy
@rektide
you said it yourself, obsolescence isnt a problem. Just look at how the DS has been raping this gen despite the superior hardware of the PSP. Hardware plays a part, but not an important one.
@Wesscoast
I hope you dont actually think the iPhone invented (or even made widespread) digital distribution of games. Steam and XBL have been doing it for years.
@fel but iphone created gaming, pc just copied wolfenstein frrom the iphone platform
Palm should license webOS to HTC/LG/SAMSUNG etc !!!
AND ITS ENTIRELY WEBGL BASED!!!
PSYCHE.
Palms other problem is Marketshare.
Apple has like 100,000 games, including the new Grand Theft Auto game, because of that.
@Wesscoast
That's a pretty large exaggeration, the iphone has maybe 20,000 games.. and maybe 100 worth downloading.
@ebgolfin Just a small correction: There is no lambo with a turbo sold today. I don't think there ever was, but i can't be sure. That's a Gallardo, and it looks like a normal one, though it could be a Superleggera (doubt it), meaning it has a 5L V10. So no turbo.
@fabarati Bleh, stupid comment system.
everytime I come on here it's and iphone dick sucking contest. Who cares who took what time to do what. Just be happy and move along. You motherfuckers are going @ it about dates? Well my birthday is the 29th. Knock urselves out with that 1
I think the palm pre will be an excellent phone for gaming, especially it has something the other phones don't, a hardware keyboard. Ofcourse they wouldn't serve as the primary means of control, but screen real-estate that would normally be used for virtual buttons could be used for something else... Big plus if you ask me.