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Apple positions iPod touch as a gaming device
Today might be remembered as the day that Apple finally, officially entered the handheld gaming market. During the "Let's Rock" event this morning in San Francisco, Phil Schiller took the stage to do an extended demo of a few upcoming games for the iPhone and iPod touch. He first demoed Spore Origins, a game that only recently has arrived on the iPhone's App Store, made by EA as a mobile version of the popular PC/Mac game. Real Soccer, above, was shown off as well, and finally EA's Need for Speed rounded out the pack.It's a shame that Apple chose to spotlight games from giants like EA rather than some great games from actual iPhone developers, like the much-loved Aurora Feint or the upcoming Rolando. But the most interesting thing about the presentation today wasn't even the games they showed off -- it was the fact that Steve himself called the iPod touch one of the best gaming devices on the market. Apple appears to be positioning the iPod touch as not just a music player with a multitouch screen, but an actual gaming and media device for this holiday season. That would be a smart move -- with a few more quality games in the App Store, Apple could move the touch away from its own product lines (the other iPods and the iPhone), and step up to start taking on older gaming handhelds like the PSP and DS.
iPhone users: Spore Origins now available
iPhone users think they have it all – a phone; an iPod; an internet communications device – but up until 3pm yesterday afternoon there was one thing they were all missing: Spore. Okay, there's two things they're all missing: copy & paste and Spore. After what we can only imagine was a grueling certification process, Apple's army of app-sniffing robots finally approved the handheld version of the everything simulator, dubbed Spore Origins. The 80MB download will run you a cool Hamilton (that's $10 for the currency-ignorant amongst you). Add some copy & paste and you'll have it all, iPhone user! [Via TUAW]Source – Spore Origins App Store link
Waiting on Spore and the App Store approval process
Update: The wait is over! As of 3:00 PM Eastern, the iPod touch/iPhone version of Spore Origins is available (with exclusive features) for $9.99US [App Store link].Spore Origins for the iPhone does exist. We've seen it. However, as of this writing, it still hasn't spawned in the App Store.Several months ago, it was announced that an iPhone companion would be released on the same date as the desktop version. An iPod version is available (in fact it preceded the full version of Spore), but iPhone users are still waiting to evolve. What gives?Granted, it's not even 24 hours late, but we've heard stories of Apple taking their sweet time in approving App Store applications. One developer even told us of receiving notification that their application was available hours before it actually showed up in the store.Of course, we cannot confirm the reason for Spore's tardiness. We will keep our eyes peeled for it, and let you know when it arrives.
Spore Origins out for iPod, iPhone version due this week
Spore Origins has wriggled its way out to the iTunes store for the iPod. The game is a slimmed-down version of the early microbial stages in the upcoming PC game -- in the main game, you'll be able to take your little microbes up through the evolutionary ladder all the way up to space travel, but in the iPod game, you just guide a little cellular organism around in the primordial muck, eating what's smaller than you and running away from what's bigger.We haven't played the iPod version, but the iPhone version, which we got a hands-on with at E3 earlier this year, is due out later this week, according to the game's creator, Will Wright. Both games pale in comparison to the creativity and polish that the full Spore game will offer -- running a creature around in the muck isn't nearly as fun as guiding it through the history of time itself, and unfortunately, as we were told at E3, online play and character transfer never made it into the final version, so the portable games have no relation to the full game at all.So what you're left with is a little arcade game, which probably isn't actually worth the $5 it costs. There are, after all, better games out there for less.
TUAW Hands-on: Spore Origins for the iPhone
In the Electronic Arts booth here at E3, nestled in among the raucous noises of various first-person shooters, is a completely white room with a few cell phones on tables. This is the EA Mobile space, and it was here that we got to play Spore Origins, the iPhone version of Will Wright's sure-to-be masterpiece.Like the EA Mobile space, Spore Origins is pretty simple and clean, and stands out as a fairly calm experience among the racket of a lot of other iPhone games. Spore takes you through a civilization from ameoba to space travel, but Spore Origins sticks with just the ameoba stage. You play a creature of your own creation and float through the microbial ether, eating things that are smaller than you, and running away from things that are larger.Read on for TUAW's impressions of one of the most anticipated iPhone games, and why it might not be all we had hoped.
iPhone game news from EA's press conference at E3
I'm at E3 in Los Angeles all week for TUAW's sister site Joystiq, and this afternoon we got to see the Electronic Arts press conference at the Orpheum Theater. Among bigger EA games like Spore and Dead Space, Travis Boatman (who has graced these pages before talking about mobile games on the iPhone) of EA's mobile games division came out on stage to talk about iPhone gaming. He said that obviously there is "a lot of interest" around mobile gaming lately, especially around the iPhone, and that EA is committed to capitalizing on that interest.They premiered three games in the App Store at launch (Sudoku, Tetris, and Scrabble), and Boatman pointed out that they've tried to innovate in all three -- Tetris features a unique piece-drawing system, and Spore (full name: Spore Origins, a mini version of the bacteria stage of the game, complete with a creature creator) will use the accelerometer to control its creatures. Additionally, EA wants WiFi to be a big part of their games on the iPhone -- they're planning on releasing a patch to the Scrabble game that will allow people to play together online.Finally, Boatman hinted that they were aiming to do a lot more with the iPhone's processing power -- they plan ports of Tiger Woods and Need for Speed on the iPhone. As Mac gaming fans, EA isn't exactly our favorite game developer, but getting big developers behind real innovation on the iPhone will help lift the tides of the software in the App Store.
