Nintendo DS, Technology, iPhone
The Nintendo DS has officially fallen behind sales of the PSP in Japan. As Nintendo is the dominant gaming company in the market, I don’t think they are going to take that sitting down. With analyst Michael Pachter portending a new DS by the end of the year and fans clamoring over what the new Nintendo portable will do and look like, I think I’ll jump in with my own wish list.
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.
Legendary game designer John Carmack’s next big game may be smaller than you’d expect. The guy who put id Software on the map with gory romps like Doom and Quake is leading the iPhone gaming charge, intent on tapping into the uber-phone’s burgeoning market. What made the father of first-person shooters and one of the minds behind the upcoming 360/PS3/PC title, Rage, turn his bespectacled-gaze to the portable gaming market?
If you’ve got an iPhone sporting the new 2.0 firmware, chances are you have Super Monkey Ball. (And if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?) But there’s more goodness to be culled from the iTunes app store besides playing games. There are plenty of cool apps out there, and some of the best ones don’t cost a penny. After all, when you spend a big chunk of your disposable income on limited-edition video games, free and useful stuff is a godsend.
As we’ve discussed numerous times before now, Apple is upping the ante on the iPhone and iPod Touch with the addition of the App Store. The App Store sells amateur and professional applications made by the people, for the people. Anyone who purchases the developer software can apply to the developer program, send his or her new app to Apple and, after review, get their game or program up for sale (or free download). Here’s the catch: you might be able to find a handful of Nintendo Wii consoles before seeing your App up for sale.
Early last month, Steve Jobs and the rest of team Apple announced the release of the iPhone 2.0 software beta. This update enables Apple to fully leverage the SDK that it released earlier this year, which enables third-party developers to more easily create applications for the iPhone, by creating the “App Store.”
The App Store “lets users browse, search, purchase and wirelessly download third party applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch.” Importantly, Apple gives 70% of software sales revenues to developers and even lets development parties give their applications away for free.
So, why should this matter to Nintendo? Well, game publishers are already hailing the fact that this development may make the iPhone the handheld gaming platform of choice.
According to John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts, “The animation technology in the iPhone OS enables us to build awesome games… I think iPhone consumers are going to be blown away by the games we create for this platform.”
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According to Pauline Jacquey, executive producer of Games for Everyone, Ubisoft is developing games not just for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, but also for the iPhone and iTouch. In an interview with CasualGaming.biz, Jacquey said “At the minute, we’re only showing DS and Wii games, but we’ll be working on all other platforms. We don’t want to keep it too narrow.”
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Let me go ahead and preface this article: I am the Apple guy. No, not that “B movie actor” who is in the commercials, but the guy you know from the water cooler that constantly talks about how much better his Mac is. And yes, I have the Apple sticker on my Prius. Laugh it up. Go ahead, enjoy your moment in the sun. I’ve heard all the arguments: “You can’t use Mac for business,” and my personal favorite, “There are no games for Macs.” So when rumors recently surfaced on ZDnet.com about Apple’s future in gaming, I was, shall we say, more than a little ecstatic.
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