Apple’s Shadow Hangs Over Game Console Makers

Apple just hit the sweet spot of convergence. Nearly everyone wanted to carry around a cell phone and a music player and so mating them together is a big thing. However, they also made it a mobile computer and internet device along with those things. And it's the same single device that you would "have" to carry around anyway - the cell phone - and have a lot of nice extras thrown in that you might not carry a dedicated device for.

And as Nintendo showed with their Wii, there's a huge market for games outside of the core gamer crowd. People who want something fun, cheap, and accessible. And the App Store provides that - a couple dollars becomes an impulse purchase while $30 is something you have to think about.

The problem with other handhelds is that they do one thing - games. Apple's handheld gaming machine also serves an essential function - phone - but also provides gaming. I, as a consumer, don't want to have to remember and carry a lot of devices. And the iPhone means that I can carry a little game machine, phone, media player, internet device all in one. And that gives me a lot of engagement in the platform in the way that sometimes remembering a non-essential device doesn't.

I just don't see, with current hardware, the iPhone taking over the niche that the xbox360/ps3 serve for more serious gamers.

The serious types also seem like they'd be spending a lot more money, but I guess there are more casual gamers with $20 and an iPhone in terms of sheer wallets.

It's the games. Games shift consoles. People buy iPhone games because they are there and because they are cheap. People _don't_ buy iPhones to play particular games.

This is the opposite case for consoles, where it's not uncommon for someone to buy a console to play a particular series — say, buying an xbox to play gears of war.

At the end of the day, the iPhone lacks the lengthy and complicated games that a lot of people crave. This isn't to say more casual games stop them from competing, but they can't hope to use them to replace the current games market with cheap, casual games alone.

Personally, I think it'd be nuts for any game developer to spend the same amount of time on an iPhone game as they would on a DS game. For two reasons; Apple's mercurial approval process and an app store full of companies chasing each other to the bottom — too many cheap-arse games basically.

Quote from the end of the article:

“Will a company be able to operate completely on these games? No,” Mr. Yoshida said. “After all, we’re talking about the kind of games people make sitting in a cafe with a laptop.”

A person sitting in a cafe with a laptop might be able to operate completely, though.