Game Developer Research says that Apple is winning the race among handheld game developers: 19 percent write now for the iPhone and iPod touch. That's more than double the amount of Nintendo DS and Sony PSP developers. Other interesting figures: Handheld games are now 25 percent of the whole gaming market, up from 12 percent before the iPhone/iPod touch phenomenon. During the last three quarters, all handheld game developers are writing for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. No wonder why Nintendo's President not a fan of the iPad. http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/02/05/apple.catching.up.to.nintendo.in.dev.interest/
And this is not all: with games like Space Miner or GTA:CW just released and Final Fantasy I & II yet to come, the iDevices will be accepted more and more in handheld gaming. It isn't the end, it is just the beginning.
Well, I'm not so proud of it to be honest Because beyond the numbers, lies the content : 80% of clones, crapps, and useless gadgets on the appstore. PSP & DS do have bad games, but they are at least ten times more polished than the majority of Apple apps. But hopefully, awesome games are becoming more and more frequent on the appstore. And this kind of report can't do anything bad to driving quality to higher grounds. Although, I think that Nintendo's president is not happy with the iPad because of appstore driving quality & prices to the bottom. Just look at GTA : CW, the same game for 4x lower price on appstore ... How ridiculous in some way ?
Hmmm.....iFans bashing Nokia sales coz of the mass cheap phones sold then iFans claim mass cheap games will trounce the gaming giants just sayin', u know. Kinda ironic. *putting 32gb ipod touch as a flame shield
PSP vs. iPhone: No cartriges needed, no shipping cost, no boxing/wrapping, no printed instructions manual, no plastic foil, no middle men, no storage place - and a dozend of things more you need for the PSP but don't need for the iPhone. Got it, why the pricing is much lower?
it's just natural that the iPhone has more developers, because of the extremely lower entry barrier... Nintendo doesn't give its SDK to everyone, and it costs a lot of money.
I love my iPhone over the DS's I have had in the past. I get to play awesome games on my cellphone, plus video and music. Only reason I have to get a DSi is for when golden sun 3 comes out. Until that, I pray nightly that Camelot puts it on the AppStore.
if the SDK for DS/PSP would cost 99$ a year and I could submitt a game for the online download, I would do it. But they apply a harsh censorship on what they put out. You can say what you want about Apple, but they are pretty relaxed on what they release.... so I am really happy with the app store on that regard. Now they have to do something with their iTunes interface for faster browsing....
Hmm, what does SDK, controls and screen size have to do with game pricing ? SDK is not the only devtool cost (my game has cost me 10000$ so far). Games are what the developer makes of them, whatever hardware it is Plus, you forget that iPhone has far better hardware than DS & PSP ^^ (a better CPU, a better GPU, more RAM and more stock space, which is huge imho)
I suspect the potential volume in terms of sales is partly what keeps price low. In a strange way, it appears similar to the Walmart principle.
Haha, nice comparison Also, the more big editors will offer same quality titles as on console but for 4x cheaper, the more people will start to reclaim 4x cheaper prices on this very consoles market.
Title should read: A barely two-year-old platform is experiencing more growth and thus more popularity than + five-year-old platforms which are naturally nearing the end of their platform cycles, amongst Western developers. Context, people, it exists for a reason.
