Calling All Gamers: Why the iPhone will Dominate the Gaming Market
Once cell phone technology developed to the point that simply making phone calls was not enough, people began to wonder how many different devices could be integrated into one mammoth handheld machine. As Palm Pilots and the ever-expensive Blackberry began integrating gaming, organization software, and mobile capabilities, people began demanding that a more inclusive phone be introduced to the practical consumer market. And then Apple gave us the iPhone.
What separates the iPhone from its competition is not just its price and uncountable list of applications (I’m pretty sure that you can use it to remotely start your car and make vegan pizza), but it finally gave us a phone whose graphics and intuitive nature made real gaming a possibility. Apple recently rocked the market by releasing Super Monkey Ball and Crash Bandicoot Nitro, which utilize Touch technology in a way that Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS have not even gone near.
The design of the iPhone is based on the next step of handheld software, and has finally gotten rid of the clumsy use of physical games. As part of its integration with other types of applications, you can simply pay for and download software, which keeps the overhead cost of games much lower. The way this digital storefront works indicates that game purchasing will go sky high, both because no game has exceeded ten dollars, and because the instant gratification of online game purchasing can be realized by the average iPhone user. This means that game sales will be higher by volume for the iPhone, ensuring its financial success. Since it has been rumored (for awhile now) that the iPhone 3G will eventually be able to support Flash, it is inevitable that larger gaming developers like EA and Square-Enix will begin jumping on the Apple bandwagon.
The iPhone lineup still leaves a lot to be desired, as most of their games are simple puzzle quests or redundant casino retread, but several steps have been taken toward bringing standard console fair to the Touch screen. These leaps forward now beg the question, is there even a place for handheld consoles? Since the newest generations of consoles have integrated online playing and game purchasing, shouldn’t gamers expect the same thing from their handheld devices? The technology of the iPhone is much superior to any handheld console because of the way the gaming controls are integrated into the movement of the phone, similar to the revolutionary design of the Wii controller. If this was a stand-alone handheld, it would still stack up against the competition.
The key point here is that the iPhone is not just a console, and that is its main benefit as a gaming system. You will likely get all the amenities that you have come to enjoy over the history of handheld gaming, plus everything you receive from the most advanced phones. This is a doomsday prediction for Nintendo’s ever-traveling handheld franchise, which may lead them to develop a phone of their own. Just like Apple did with the iPod and Garage Band, they are going to redefine the market as a way of monopolizing it.
