What do you see in the future for the iPhone & iPad gaming ? In the past portable gaming devices consisted one console every 3 or more years with games being bought in stores in the form of a cartridge . Now with the iPhone and ipad we see something very different and ground breaking . For one we see a new device being released every year , one system slightly improving on the other . We also see a open policy for anyone able to make a a game and post it forsale . Not only this but a game can be bought at anytime right from your device in the comfort of your own home ! Will these ground breaking changes to the industry change portable gaming forever and if so how ? How long in your opinion will it take untill apple is releasing a portable device powerful enough to directly challenge the competition for pushing the limit of a portable gaming device ?
let me go get my crystal ball and tea leaves............ more full feature games More big brand games (eg. call of duty) major devolpers investing more money and time into ipod touch the app store market will start to mature into big game orintated market people will be more excepting of higher rices more people will buty idevices for the sole purpose of gaming app store will gain more respect with "hardcore" gamers Ill add more as i think of them.
this is such a wide-open question that it's terribly hard to answer it in a readable post. Obviously the state of things now is quite different than had been expected for several years, as the usual players (Sony, Nintendo, MS) were more expected to shepherd portable gaming into the next generation. Apple more or less came out of left field with the App Store and such an open market being played by large and tiny developers alike. It's really changing the way popular conceptions were held about how all of this business is done. On the one hand I see Apple having a very firm foothold, almost unstoppable, in this new market ad their commitment to dedication seems very apparent; they release a steady stream of interesting new hardware and upgrades, and enough major software upgrades to support that in kind. Meanwhile their name is on everyone's lips and it's just this huge runaway train. iPhone is truly the PlayStation 2 of it's time. On the other hand, some of their measures and expectations are very sloppily handled and while it doesn't matter in the short term, long term things could get loose for them. Their competitors haven't exactly been fighting them properly, but it's only a matter of time until they will need to go more neck-and-neck. Of course I am referring specifically to the traditional gaming companies mentioned above, but you also have extreme interest in things like RIM, in Google, in whoever else and all their associated devices and networks. Really everyone's operating on a quite "experimental level" for the most part right now as that seems to be working, but all of the bigger guys will want to battle it out - sensibly - for that major piece of the pie. Who will have the "biggest" appstore? Who will have the most well known games/properties (Angry Birds VS Zelda VS WOW VS...?) as exclusives? Who will have the dominant operating system? I see Apple is currently the leader in a lot of ways, but I do suspect their dominance could be short-lived. They have traditionally eschewed gaming and unless they really get a strong bead on how (and why) to steer it more properly, then things could be going the other way. They are definitely not stupid however, so overall, it's just very early to know what to expect.
Hopefully we'll see a lot more ports of games from the DS, PSX, and especially the SNES. Ports are generally cheaper since you dont need to create any new content.
Hopefully it turns into a console. So we can actually have advanced games not limited by the hardware.
It still seems to me the majority of people playing PSP/DS games are gamers, and the majority of people playing iPhone games just happened to need a phone and chose the iPhone, then found out the App Store had games. iPod Touches often seem to be purchsed primarily for gaming, but I'm sure it's still the vast minority. Put it this way... DS sales haven't exactly fallen, so the iPhone isn't taking over the market, it's just created another one.
agreed, it's definitely created a new market. and yeah, there are TONS of iPod Touches out there from what people say, that often get purchased for gaming..
Yeah, i don't think it makes much sense to compare three different markets-- phones, MP3 players, and handheld gaming-- as one thing. There are some cross-overs, but until (or if) Sony and Nintendo truly break into those two markets, you can't really compare them.
It already has changed portable gaming, and I don't see it going back, so it has changed forever. Mobile phone gaming was fragmented and a poor experience, held back by bad visibility and uninterested networks. That has been wiped away by the App Store, a sales model that everyone is copying. Handheld console sales have lost some ground to the iOS devices, but their dedicated gaming controls give them some breathing space until a widely accepted solution appears for iOS. If it ever does... The biggest changes however are the pricing and who develops the games. Pricing allows small games that are more suited to taking development risks with. This has lead to many new experiences in an arena that was becoming stagnant. It has also led to a new generation of small, or lone developers working independently, free from gates which only suited the larger enterprises, for which I am grateful, as I am one of them.
Will we see other portable devises follow suit and eventually do away with selling cartridges / CD's in stores and be totally online ? Will we see apple follow siute and compete as a solid gaming system ?
I don't think that other systems will completely follow suit. We've seen attempts before, like the PSP Go, but that ultimately turned out to be a failure (or at least in my book it is). DSi Ware wasn't too bad since it still ran regular DS games and didn't require a download, but still didn't reach the popularity that the App Store has, and the majority of games are still sold through DS carts. As for an Apple gaming console... It's definitely a possibility. They've made Apple TV, which could definitely be a basis for such a console. The next iteration of the Apple TV could have capabilities for playing games either using the TV's remote or a whole new controller built exclusively for the ATV. It's a possibility, but I don't see it happening too soon.
The future is not "iPhone & iPad" gaming, just as the present isn't. For one, you forgot to list iPod touch. For another, the platform is iOS. And iOS is the present and future of the platform as a whole. And gaming is just a part of that. And the future, if the folks at Apple know what's good for them, is a fourth pillar of the iOS platform: Apple TV, with it's own section of the App Store (ala iPad, but geared to the living room and HDTV set ups). But that would require newer hardware (perhaps). I look at the current, new Apple TV as a first step to Apple eventually trying taking over the living room with iOS. And gaming will inevitably follow, BUT, just like iPhone/touch and iPad, it won't be the primary use of the device. Not to nitpick...but iPhone/touch is NOT a "portable gaming device" in terms of market. It's a mobile platform that happens to have gaming. Very different from DS and PSP, which are dedicated game devices primarily used for gaming above all else. Old nitpick from ol' spiffy, but it still holds true. Direct comparisons of iPhone/touch and game devices like PSP and DS are not really valid ones, no more than PC as a platform vs. home consoles like Wii, PS3, and 360. The eventual introduction of an Apple TV with it's own section of the App Store (along with hopefully more powerful hardware) will hold that same line: it won't be a "home game console", but a "digital entertainment set top box" that will just happen to have games. As for your questions, Apple isn't in direct competition with Nintendo or Sony (though Sony seems to erroneously believe so, and Apple sometimes feels so as well even though they are more in competition with, say, Android and upcoming Windows 7 Mobile), so I can't really answer the questions. I will state that the App Store has, and will continue, to influence what Sony and Nintendo do with their respective digital download storefronts for their portable game systems. Hardware-wise, I don't expect it to change Nintendo or Sony's game much. Maybe Sony will release a future "PSP-phone" and "PSP-Walkman" (which, honestly, they should've done already rather than the misguided PSPgo), but I don't see those two companies moving away from the usual 5 year life cycle for portable game hardware. It's a different market, after all.
