Like the surge in recent years of casual and female gamers, mobile gaming is one of the industry's unsung lions, a demographic that's literally exploding as headline-snatchers like the Wii, 360, and PS3 trundle magnanimously behind. Even the stratosphere-skimming Nintendo DS, with some 78 million units sold worldwide -- poised to surpass even the vaunted PS2 -- is rarely covered with the kind of relish the games media dishes when it comes to Microsoft or Sony products. The worldwide mobile internet market has in excess of 800 million subscribers, and recent estimates suggest the mobile gaming market could hit $4.1 billion worldwide by 2012. But when it comes to mobile gaming, no one's really talking about it.
Except when it comes to the iPhone, which the games media doesn't cover, but the mainstream press tends to fawn over en masse.
But wait, the iPhone doesn't really do games, does it?
Think again. Last Friday Forbes's Chris Morris got John Carmack to all but confirm id Software's celebrated Doom series is coming to an iPhone near you. According to Carmack, "We have a title we want to develop exclusively for iPhone... I'm not announcing anything specifically, but it would be a graphical tour de force." (According Anna Kang, president of iD Mobile, "it would not be a new IP," so either Doom, Quake, or Wolfenstein, though I'd lay odds 100-to-1 we're talking Doom, and speculated as much already back in March.)
Carmack also compared the iPhone to the PS2 or Xbox in terms of its horsepower. As good or better than your average PlayStation Portable, in other words. Keep in mind this is John Carmack we're talking about, not a guy given to hyperbole when making tech analogies.
According to a report out today from business intelligence consultant Screen Digest, the world's top four games publishers -- EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu, and THQ Wireless -- have seen their global market shares increase from 11% to 22% in 2007.
The iPhone "could revolutionize the [games] market" claims the report, continuing (with my emphasis):
Released in the same month that Apple?s iPhone 3G went on sale, the report reveals the potentially revolutionary impact that touchscreen handsets could have on mobile gaming. In particular, Screen Digest expects that the iPhone will drive the growth of the North American market raising it to the leading global market by revenue next year.
From the perspective of both games developers and mobile users, these units have the potential to be the number one device for mobile gaming. This is supported by recently released retail sales figures that show 10 million applications were downloaded from the Apple online store in the three days after the iPhone 3G went on sale on July 11.
According to Screen Digest, The global mobile games market is about to explode, with North American leading the charge.
The biggest challenge? According to Screen Digest, that would be "technical challenges for developers, limiting the sophistication of the games on offer which in turn restricts audience retention." Translation: Apple needs to get off its duff and roll out a "Games For iPhone" initiative (analogous to Microsoft's Games For Windows push). John Carmack was himself highly critical of Apple last November, when he lambasted the company for not being supportive of gaming on any of the company's platforms.
The good news: Apple released its iPhone Software Developers Kit earlier this year, earning thumbs up from game developers across the spectrum.
Apple's iPhone debuted in last June and sold over a quarter-million units in the first 30 hours. According to Apple, the new 3G iPhone which debuted on July 11th sold over a million units in just three days. Analysts predict Apple will sell around 15 million iPhones in 2008, and from 15.5 million up to 40 million iPhones in 2009.
Whatever the actual numbers, most analysts agree: expect a dramatic increase in iPhone sales in 2009.
And expect a deluge of iPhone games to follow in its wake.
As a gamer who owns consoles, a PC, and a mobile phone that can play games...I can tell you that the mobile platform will NEVER replace console gaming as a whole.
Certainly Apple will be able to sell a good number of games for the iPhone should they choose to develop them...but the idea that consoles are going to 'trundle behind' the iPhone as a gaming platform is ridiculous. I've purchased many games for my Motorola Rockr AND my Nintendo DS...but I still spend more time/money on console gaming because it's simply more fun and more comfortable to play games in my living room with my television.
I don't think that gaming is an either/or proposition when talking about mobile vs. console markets.
When you compare the iPhone to the PSP and DS it becomes apparent that the system meets or exceeds the performance of these handhelds. Here's the data:
Nintendo DS: 67 MHz ARM 946E-S + 33 MHz ARM7TDMI 4MB RAM 256KB Flash + cartridge storage Dual, 256ﾗ192 3" displays; one is stylus touch sensitive No accelerometers, No camera, No mobile radi,o WiFi 802.11b/g, No Bluetooth
Sony PSP: 333 MHz MIPS R4000 CPU + GPU with 2 MB onboard VRAM running at 166 MHz 32 MB main RAM (new models 64MB), and 4 MB embedded DRAM. MemoryStick storage, UMD media 480ﾗ272); no touch screen features No accelerometers No camera No mobile radio WiFi 802.11b No Bluetooth Apple
iPhone: Samsung ARM SoC 620 MHz 1176 running at 412 Mhz + PowerVR MBX 3D GPU 128MB RAM 8 or 16GB Flash storage 320ﾗ480 3.5" display with finger multitouch input Accelerometers for direct physical control 2 Megapixel camera Quad band GSM + EDGE WiFi 802.11 b/g BlueTooth 2.0 EDR
Add the vastly superior App store and there you go.
I agree with you jjgard. Plus, hasn't the iPhone been criticized for low battery life? Then how the heck are people going to play games on it?