14 DAY TRIAL // With Apple finally releasing the long-craved iPhone SDK on March 6, also using video game demonstrations to show what can be accomplished with the kit, people started wondering if Apple indeed isn't focusing quite a bit on games lately. Still, neither Steve's speech, nor Phil Schiller's showed a tendency towards video games. Scott Forstall's, on the other hand, did.
DallasNews.com is blowing the dust off an old rumor saying that Apple is indeed having a bite at the video games market, with the release of the iPhone SDK. Undoubtedly, video games are going to play an even bigger role starting now, but is this enough to claim that "Apple bites into handheld gaming"?
The respective web site thinks so, mentioning downloadable titles as the main advantage that Apple has over companies such as Sony and Nintendo, which produce two very popular portable gaming systems, the PlayStation Portable and the DS respectively. The web site claims that with downloadables, you don't have to worry about losing or scratching your games, while the system itself performs a lot better when it has to access data stored directly on a hard drive.
Quite true, not to mention that gamers have been demanding the downloadable method for quite some time. Apple is offering its iTunes as a platform and developers couldn't be more happy to see their titles distributed for free to all the iPhone users out there, so it pretty much looks like Apple is going to kick Sony's and Nintendo's asses, right?
I don't know about that... I somehow can't accept the fact that long time Sony PlayStation gamers are just going to drop their favorite brand over Apple's phone. I can see this happening over the course of around 3 or 4 years, but right now, the iPhone just doesn't scream games. Everyone can tell it's aimed at the business market just by looking at its design, all this while kids still love button mashing, prompting them to choose either the PSP or the DS, for the added touchscreen functionality.
It is however true that: "If enough outside developers flock to the iPhone and iPod Touch as game platforms and start releasing cool, exclusive titles for the devices, gamers will follow," according to the Dallas Morning News piece.