Smartphone gaming is now an essential part
of daily life and it all happens on the only device essential to daily living.
The major publishers know this, sparking a race to implement the most effective
mobile strategy. EA has been one of the most aggressive, acquiring PopCap,
Firemint and Chillingo in 2011 as part of the EA Mobile label. Others, such as
Activision, have taken a different approach and partnered with independents to
fund and assist new projects.
Smartphone
gaming
This could be one of the reasons why
handheld consoles from Nintendo and Sony have largely failed to have the impact
initially projected by both companies. Poor third party support was cited as
one of the reasons behind the 3DS failing to meet expectations. While the
PlayStation Vita has generally fared better in terms of publishers willing to
develop titles, the system itself has struggled at the registers.
The iPhone has effectively killed off
handheld gaming in the traditional sense. In theory, the very same games on
iPhone should be playable with an unparalleled level of depth on current
generation handhelds. Intriguingly, it is not always a question of hardware
capabilities as for all the design excellence and potential the Vita or 3DS
offer, both systems struggle to justify their very existence.
Who wants to pay over $200-$300 dollars for
a large, bulky handheld with limited connectivity and $30-$40 per game when
they can have a sleek, powerful iPhone or iPod Touch on an attractive plan that
offers unprecedented functionality, multimedia and gaming at a reasonable
price? Speaking in pure video game terms, it seems consumers are willing to
sacrifice a little quality for the convenience, price point and extracurricular
benefits an iPhone provides.
Digital
vs. physical sales
In a post-GFC world where money is still
very tight, price point remains on everyone's mind. When the App Store debuted,
iPhone users couldn't believe they were able to download an entire game for
99c, the same amount for an iTunes track. Or better yet, free! And one of the
tactics proliferated on the iPhone that has shaken the entire gaming industry
to its core is the free content model.
The gaming industry is steadily pondering
its future. Next generation consoles, cloud gaming and the free content model
are three of the big issues developers and publishers are facing. But that is
for the industry to worry about. As consumers, we are free to enjoy the giant
playground and wide world of possibility where games are free or available at
low cost in the palm of our hand.
It's evident that, after five years old,
the impact has been immense and all this has occurred without Apple even trying
to become a major player in the gaming industry. Rather than make games, they
just provided the right platform, eco-system and economics. The consumers and
publishers did the rest. And you can just imagine what another five years down
the road has in store.
Increasingly the difference in quality is
becoming barely noticeable as iPhone has grown to become a retina displaying,
high powered juggernaut with console like presentation. Admittedly there are
still some stpes that need to be taken, but as consoles are locked into long
cycles, the iPhone continues to evolve technologically while growing it' s
stable of apps to more than half a million.
Most exciting of all is how the iPod Touch,
iPhone and its bigger brother, iPad, will integrate into Apple's new Smart
TV's. The potential for another giant evolution in home entertainment might
just have Nintendo and Microsoft feeling a little nervous as the Wii U and
Microsoft's recently announced SmartGlass, that will "turn any TV into a
Smart TV," try to get the jump on Apple.
the
iPod Touch
As detailed in the second infographic, the
number of people using smartphones to play games is projected to reach over 150
million by 2016 in the US alone. That number could be even more if we see the
debut of a new Apple Smart TV within the next 18 months alongside new
iterations of its smartphone.
But
video game sales are still driven by core games
Rumors abound about the iPhone 5 and the
technical make up of Apple Smart TV's, but what we can all count on is the
iPhone will have a large say in the way we play and consume games for a very
long time. The iPhone 4S, with it's A5 processor, put it's display output on a
par with the Nintendo 3DS and if the rumors are to be believed, iPhone 5 will
include a quad-core processor that will bump the device up to around the level
of a PlayStation Vita.
For developers such as Epic Games who own
the studio that created the critically acclaimed Infinity Blade, it allows for
exploration of even more powerful titles using the Unreal Engine, or in
EA's case, the Frostbite 2 engine developed by Battlefield creators,
DICE.
Epic said in 2010 that a franchise such as
Gears of War (currently an Xbox 360 exclusive) could debut on the iPhone in two
year time suggesting the device is slowly reaching the capacity to port full,
current generation console titles as long as control and copyright issues can
be resolved.
Whether that happens on the iPhone 5
remains to be seen but the general idea of most developers is to create a
console in your pocket. In just five short years, the iPhone has come a very
long way and almost singlehandedly killed off traditional handheld gaming. In
another five years, who's to say it won't be our entire gaming console?
