The Mixed Outlook for iPhone Gaming

With everyone talking about Apple's big announcement, it's unsurprising that commentators are discussing the possibilities of gaming on the iPhone. The DS and the PSP are both on N'Gai Croal's list of who is afraid of the iPhone, and with good reason. Touchscreen gaming on a high-resolution screen? Sounds like fun. TIME's lengthy run-down on the iPhone even mentions the possibilities of games on the small screen. Just the same, it's not all roses: Kotaku talks about the developer unfriendly nature of the platform, and how that could throw up barriers to the first game on the handheld.

Why even worry about it?

You can't USE the damn thing for anything beyond what Steve envisions.

There will be no free games for the iPhone, and the pay ones will all cost way more than they are worth.

All of the potential of OSX and Cocoa will be locked up in the Apple ivory tower. GG, Steve. GG.

Developer Unfriendly?

If it already uses widgets, couldn't you just write the games in Javascript? That doesn't sound that developer unfriendly to me. Also, what about web games that use Flash. You're going to be able to play those under Safari already, right? I'm sure many developers will design Flash games specifically tailored to the iPhone.

Not gonna happen, sorry

I'd like to see gaming on an iPhone. But, since Jobs's decree of no external software, I doubt it will ever happen. Nintendo has nothing to fear, because it has many game makers on its side, and likewise for the PSP. I know Mac users who complain about no Mac gaming on the computers - so why should the developers foucus on a phone. Besides, what type of game cartrige (or, in PSP's case, microDVD) could it use for software? I'd like it, but I doubt it.

Wait for MacWorld 2008

We all know the true reason for not supporting third party apps, the relatively small capacity (4 & 8 gigabytes), a locked-in provider, and no 3G support: Apple is leaving themselves some room for improvement so that next year's MacWorld, when they announce a hugely-refined version, they can market the device for those who aren't quite satisfied with the current version.

1. Sell limited product to eager customers, while making others upset
2. Wait a year for new rumors to spread about possible new upgrades
3. ???
4. Profit!

Re:Wait for MacWorld 2008

It's too bad. "Some games on a cell phone" does not equal "a gaming phone."

It's really a bummer what happened with Nokia's N-Gage. It was a great idea with poor execution. The real difference with that product was the attempt to get top game companies to write/port for their platform. I remembers seeing Ghost Recon and thinking phone gaming had arrived. It was a noble attempt. It's too bad the games were the size of a postage stamp and the phone part made you look like you were talking into a taco.

By comparison, my Windows SmartPhone has a beautiful display and generally good phone functionality. But the games tend to suck because of the lack of support from the pros.

Getting a little bit of software from armatures on the iPhone will not get you exciting games. The only way the iPhone can compete with the DS or PSP is to do what Nintendo and Sony do, make gaming a priority and get high-quality game developers on board.

BTW, what's that thing sportin' under the hood? Can it fill that beautiful display with beautiful 3D graphics? Inquiring minds want to know.

TW

iPod Games

I imagine that it is capable of playing the games available to the regular iPods from the iTunes Music Store.

FOUR great devices in one package?

While it looks like the iPhone has all the hardware required to make a pretty slick mobile gaming platform, one gets the distinct impression that this just isn't in the cards. If users can't install software then the only games for the iPhone will have to come pre-installed, which pretty much obliterates the possibility of there ever being more than a handful of iPhone games. No third-party software means that what few games there are will all be made by Apple itself, which isn't good news. Apple is many great things, but game developer isn't one of them.

If Jobs sticks to his guns then this really is a lost opportunity for Apple. The iPhone's multiple point touch-screen and accellerometer could have made for a highly innovative portable gaming device even if the iPhone doesn't have the graphics hardware to keep up with other portable gaming devices, similar to how the Wii is highly innovative despite it's lack of cutting edge graphics. Apple could have had *FOUR* great devices in one package instead of just three. I'm sure the iPhone will be hacked and some amateur games will be produced for it, but that's not nearly enough to bring out the fourth latent "killer app" the iPhone could have had.

Re:FOUR great devices in one package?

When did jobs say users couldn't install software on the iPhone? If you people RTFA, jobs said that they will not allow users to install random software on the phone, however I see no reason they won't have it open to developers, and after extensive testing of the device, allow users to buy the software on iTunes or something. It would seem perfectly natural to me. Jobs point of not allowing all software to run on it is to avoid the issues that plague computers and such when users install a ton of crap on their machines and wonder why things aren't working right. Limiting what can run on a device that has real time constraints and primary functionality that MUST always work is a perfectly logical idea. Especially considering the thought of iPhone viruses that could spread through bluetooth or something if it was allowed.

Phil

Sure...just like the Lynx!

5 hour's when gaming if you are lucky will move it the way of the PSP. It also is priced out of the gaming market even beyond the PSP. Then there is also that pesky fact that Apple has said there won't be a way to install third party apps, so all developers would have to go through Apple for distribution even.

Nintendo is probably about as scared as they were of the N-Gage.

Device integration... blah.

All this device integration is useless. A decent phone (free w/contract), camera ($100) and DS ($130) will do each job better than the iPhone. That's not the point obviously. The iPhone has all of this integrated, but we're talking gaming here. No photographer would decide which cellphone to use as a replacement for their camera, and neither should a gamer. It is inevitable that 5-15 years in the future we will finally have a gaming platform that also happens to be a phone. And then there will be a game that will be great, and you will need that platform to play it. A portable singularity, if you will. But that time is not now, and this is like discussing the Outlook of iPhone Photography. (i.e. Silly).

Certainly from an enthusiast's point of view it would be great if the iPhone was an open platform so you could port Game XYZ to it, but even that isn't the case.

Maybe they'll add games later.

Maybe they will add games to it later, like they did with the iPod. Now that they finally added games to the iPod, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw games added to the iPhone some time next year. Maybe with the first big revision.

Vote with $$$

I'll vote with my wallet. I pledge to buy at least 2 games on my iPhone.

mobile mmo

for now, mobile games are going to continue sticking with the 'little' apps - solitaire, poker, tetris, things like that. While there are some hack-n-slash games out there, I suspect that they don't do as well as the developers would like, especially compared to low commitment games like the above mentioned.

I'm pretty sure the industry is keenly aware and waiting for the day the market for online games to begin showing up on mobile devices. But the tech still isn't there yet. I can't imagine latency over the cellphone being considered a cheap commodity. So things that require twitch gaming (fighters, racers, rogues, co-op shooters) would be unplayable in a mobile online environment. Plus imagine the battery life? How long do you think you can play before your cell phone dies?

The first thing mentioned when my coworkers and I saw the iphone widescreen was, "dude, can you imagine games on that thing?" But what kind of games can you really play? I'm gonna need tactile feedback, flexible controls, and quick reaction time (framerate or latency) in addition to the nice graphics and sound. And considering the price of the device itself, mass market is not really an option, as nobody is going to buy this thing for their children. Remember rpgs for the palm? They did good enough for the 1-man developer, but it wasn't enough to begin to drive an industry to that direction.

iphone gaming isn't goign to make anybody rich - well, that's not true. It will make _somebody_ rich.

Untill something happens with phone companies where bandwidth and latency become dirt dirt cheap, I say the future is still in (currently) wifi gaming. The DS (and the PSP too!) still have a huge potential in that field. A pokemon MMO on the DS or Final Fantasy Online for the PSP == parents worst nightmare. I don't think we are still aware of what the DS/PSP can actaully do. Give it a little more time, and somebody will think of a killer app for those gaming devices. But in the mean time, gaming on the phone will stay small untill the market begins to take notice. And it hasn't noticed yet.

Cowboy iPhone SDK

Regardless of whether or not Apple releases an official SDK -- I feel that to most slashdot users the bundled apps will not exploit the iPhone's full potential. What good is a handheld computer with out an ssh client, or vnc client? I've registered iphonesdk.com in response and hopefully with enough intrest/talent/bricked iPhone's we can create a 3rd party SDK and app loader to make all our iWet dreams come true for this device.

just another ipod or a PDA?

At first I was outraged by the the fact it was going to be a closed system. I'm still mad, and if there is a petition to sign, I'd sign it, but in the end it's not so surprising given how Apple has treated the IPod.

It's not clear how they'll close their platform. Some people have suggested Widgets might still be usuable, or the fact that you can still play flash games through web pages. For a couple of things, widgets might be good enough .. while I hate javascript, I hear they are fairly versitile. Some current apps I would personally like are: listings of restaurants I like tied in which the google.maps; locate *other* people carrying GPS devices (e.g. trying to find friend in a crowd); a non-SMS chat program; simplified food-ordering program (see seamlessweb.com); python interpreter; simplified database; ebook reader that allows bookmarking and markup of pages; interactive NYC subway map (things like, if a train is down, how the hell do I get there...)

Because there's a web browser, I'm assuming you'll be able to at least d/l apps to it. I'm also told that OS X 10.5 will have signed binaries. So they can restrict use of apps by either requiring them to be signed by Apple, or they can take the approach they did with the IPod, and just make it a pain in the neck to get the apps in (e.g. secret directory + some file you need to edit to add an entry in).

While it's true, 3rd party apps can always make the platform more unstable, at the same time, Apple will never (nor want to) write apps specific to everyone's needs (e.g. NYC subway map). However, some app like that would be invaluable to me. Maybe some compromise of Apple testing some top percent of apps, and allowing them to be d/l'd with some warning of how it will cause you immediate death to just run the app.

That Gizmodo demo

Hey, that video of the Gizmodo thing, with the augmented reality game, looks pretty awesome! I hadn't realized the techniques involved had gotten that good yet. There is definitely potential there.

Umm.....

Given that Jobs Vader already said there would be no 3rd party apps for the iPhone, you can take it as a given that some other company will make a clone that does support 3rd party apps (including games), and will dominate the iphone both on price and performance.

Jobs will never learn. You can't expect Apple to suddenly invent all the killer apps (including games!), just because for a brief second in time they have the best interface. The interface will get copied (maybe even improved upon!), and the copy will be cheaper and allow 3rd party apps. Besides which, the "killer app" for an iphone is going to be something that hasn't even been invented yet, and I seriously doubt Mac has a patent on any kind of innovation. Jobs is an arrogant fool. They've already lost this battle. History repeats itself AGAIN. End of Story.

rhY

Oddly enough I would buy it if it ran windows

..or at least emulated it. It can't be that expensive per device for a windows mobile or palm license. Run the main OS as OS X or whatever derivative they come up with, and have palm or windows mobile emulated/virtualized for "compatibility mode", and instantly have access to 1000s of apps. Yah, it's probably much harder than it sounds, but I run alot of medical apps on my pocket pc phone that I would not be willing to lose.

who said anything about games?

I don't really see what the problem is here.

One of the major criticisms i have of most phones is that they try to do too much and do it badly. I have a Motorola A1000 and it's a heap of shit. The only reason i keep it is because it does everything i want it to. However it does it so apallingly that as soon as a phone comes out with similar features that is better i'm going to get it. It looks like the iPhone is that phone.

I also can't understand people criticising His Steveness' decision to have tight control over the platform.

I have a gameboy emulator and a SNES emulator on my A1000. They're both open source and written by god knows who, and they have been known to take my phone down with them. But even in its default configuration my phone can still crash. I think that's the worst thing that could ever happen - having a phone crash? It's an appliance! You wouldn't want to walk into your kitchen, put some food in the oven, set the timer and walk away only to come back to find a BSOD saying "Sorry, this oven has performed an illegal instruction and will be shut down".

Apple doesn't want their new phone to do that. THe idea that a badly written program can take down a network is clearly bollocks, but that doesn't mean there aren't perfectly good reasons for closing the platform. The other really important one is simply a matter of money.

Cellular networks really like lock-in. I've seen phones that have bluetooth that you can only receive from, not send anything. So if you want to send a picture you have to use MMS. This makes them money but pisses off anyone with a clue.

If apple can offer a service that people want to use that the networks can, theoretically, charge for, they're going to have a bargaining chip on their table, and by the looks of things the product isn't nearly finished enough for them to have finalised their negotiations with Cingular on this topic. In that sense cellular providers are complete bastards. I mean, did you see that guy at the Stevenote? i wouldn't have touched his hand with a bargepole let alone shook it.

Someone like apple entering a market for the first time isn't really in a position of power to release an open phone and go "fuck you" to the networks. The iPhone would cost almost as much as a iBook if it were unsibsidised - would you really pay £700 for a phone?

Handset manufacturers need the network providers muscle to get these phones thrown around like fashion statements, and as the market currently stands that's the game that apple is forced to play. If apple didn't do what the networks wanted then the iphone simply would not exist in the market - they need the subsidy.

We've got the luxury in europe (this time) of seeing what pans out with the iPhone technically. Also this quote "That doesn't mean there's not going to be software to buy that you can load on them coming from us" from His Steveness kind of reaffirms the pay-for content idea being likely. Anything that gets onto the phone has to go through apple (officially). So look at the iTunes/iPod thing and take it from there - you'll be able to buy things for your phone through iTMS.

One thing that everyone on slashdot has to remember, always, and with everything, is that PEOPLE ARE DUMB. They don't understand stuff like whiting code and openness and all the principled stuff that gets griped about here. Apple is aiming the iPhone squarely at The Masses, and The Masses want a phone that works. Having all and sundry releasing software for the phone will jeopardise its stability and if the phone is seen as being an unstable piece of shit it won't sell. Smartphones are NOT mass-market devices, and apple is trying to MAKE them appealing to The Masses. So with that aim in mind and the fact that apple is obliged to do a deal with one network provider or another means that they has do do things the way a) the network providers want and b) in a way that's going to make them all money and c) will not jeopardise the end user experience of the phone, which

Gaming

I once had a great Korean device, called GP32. It was way ahead of it's time, and it had open source development enviroment and it was quite developer friendly with active community.

What happened? There was only 1 good commercial game, which I bought: Pinball dreams. There were talks about more, but some Korean company even failed to translate Ashtonia Story (or something like that) because they thought it would not sell. They did however translate it for PSP and it is getting top reviews everywhere and selling pretty good.

So, if you have limited audience, limited quantity gaming platform, how much interrest is that gonna generate from game developers? Next to nothing really.

Then we think about PSP and DS or even GBA. They have nearly unlimited supply of old games, that can be ported to them. PSP has been getting some PS1 titles, DS has atleast Mario 64 and Mario Cart and I am definately going to get FFVI for my GBA. They have .. thousands of games available.

Then let's thinka about gaming in Mac. I have old iBook , and I am not sure should I cry or laugh. There is Myst, Blizzard Games (thank you Blizzard, keep up the wonderful job) and some open source games. That is mostly it. The gaming market on Mac is very, very limited. Can you name some Mac exclusive games? Thought so. And the competitors, they can choose what to port today, and it will most likely sell.

It also seems to lack any 3d capability. Which sucks.

Their best bet would be IMHO to make FULL flash 9 compability and let users play flash games. That is the only way they have large base of games available. Any other option is a sure loss.