The story in gaming growth over the past couple of years has been how casual games draw in a new audience. First the Wii successfully converted Moms with casual designs, as well as installing into nursing homes. Yes, nursing home patients love a good round of wii sports bowling just like everyone else.
With Wii Mania starting to taper off a little bit, we are now seeing a strong emergence of casual games on the Iphone, and financial reports show that its the only segment that has seen significant growth in the past year. Thats not to say that the hard core gaming business is suffering, its doing very well when you consider the down economy, its just not growing any longer.
I'm afraid its like this. There is more money in casual games right now, especially for a grab and go unit like the Iphone.
Personally I don't see the Iphone making any great shakes for hardcore gamers. The money is in the casual content, its where the new audience is at, its the bulk of the gaming audience for that device.
Perhaps the Zune HD will have the remedy for the hard core portable, because I don't see the PSP having a great resurgence.
I agree Cliff, the iPhone market isn't about the hard-core games right now. But I felt like it has a lot of potential because it has such a wide user base, has the power on board and now as the extensibility. From a developer's point of view it may actually be a better platform because they can bring out hardware components for specific uses.
Some game studios, especially ngmoco, are already making fully fledged portable games to match those found on the DS and they're inching closer to matching some PSP games.
Speaking of which, anyone else playing Star Defense yet? It's awesome!
You know, it's almost astonishing to me just how bad the gaming market is for smartphones. The G1 and iPhone share, in my opinion, a very mediocre game market. Sure, there are a few gems and geniunely fun games to play, but you're all right in saying how much lost potential is there.
'Cell Phone Games' have always been something that I wince at when I hear. I've never been convinced that there are good games out there. But now with powerful smartphones, there are few reasons why developers should not have upped the ante.
And Phone developers should definitely be helping to usher in such a change.
chrisWhite
Littleton, CO
Comments
With Wii Mania starting to taper off a little bit, we are now seeing a strong emergence of casual games on the Iphone, and financial reports show that its the only segment that has seen significant growth in the past year. Thats not to say that the hard core gaming business is suffering, its doing very well when you consider the down economy, its just not growing any longer.
I'm afraid its like this. There is more money in casual games right now, especially for a grab and go unit like the Iphone.
Personally I don't see the Iphone making any great shakes for hardcore gamers. The money is in the casual content, its where the new audience is at, its the bulk of the gaming audience for that device.
Perhaps the Zune HD will have the remedy for the hard core portable, because I don't see the PSP having a great resurgence.
Might be a little awkward if you receive a call in the middle, but it couldn't be worse than those 90s sat phones!
Some game studios, especially ngmoco, are already making fully fledged portable games to match those found on the DS and they're inching closer to matching some PSP games.
Speaking of which, anyone else playing Star Defense yet? It's awesome!
You are probably right, but I suspect Microsoft has a better idea on how to draw in the hard core gamer crowd than Apple does.
Maybe, but do you think those people are on the Zune team?
(Also
'Cell Phone Games' have always been something that I wince at when I hear. I've never been convinced that there are good games out there. But now with powerful smartphones, there are few reasons why developers should not have upped the ante.
And Phone developers should definitely be helping to usher in such a change.
Battery life.