iPhone = DS/PSP Killer
The iPhone debuted at $600, I got one for about $400 (two, if you count GamerMoms), and now the newer, sleeker, faster, cooler version is roughly $200. The iPod Touch uses the same software and Apple just posted numbers suggesting that its music store is outselling Wal*Mart. And on top of all this – now iPhone’s got game. So much game in fact, Sony and even mighty Nintendo should be scared….
The App store is something I’ve been waiting for since the iPhone’s release. Since the iPhone is basically a pocket computer with a phone attached, and since it runs on a version of the Mac OS, I wasn’t please to see Apple making their big mistake – again. In a nutshell: back in the 80’s Apple owned the PC market. At a crucial crossroads Apple chose to lock down their system and concentrate on elegance and form. Microsoft meanwhile made sure their platform encouraged amateur and professional development. A circle that fed itself. Geniuses developed for PC because PC was open to development and buyers bought PC because that’s where the programs were (still are, in many cases). The iPhone being locked seemed like a stupid repeat of that mistake.
Well, it’s only partially locked now. The door is ajar, you might say, because now there are hundreds of applications. Most of them are free, many of them useful, all demonstrating the potential of the platform and touchscreen. Apple has the hot tech, the in-demand device, the Store, the catalog, and now they have a huge headstart when it comes to easy to use apps. I know other companies got here first, but iPhone is where the bulk of people are going to start and Apple – in my view – has just one the phone wars in their second iteration.
iPhone gaming is so easy, simple, fun, and convenient – I’m predicting the mainstream death of the DS and PSP.
Notice I said “mainstream” – graphics hounds will still love their PSP and hardcore Nintendo fans and gamers will still play DS games but the market winner, the platform of choice for the Sudoku, Tetris, Bejeweled, music, rhthym, Nintendog, Sims, Solitare, and wildly innovative puzzle titles will be the iPhone.
Just a minute.
Okay, uh, tap the App button and the store loads. Call up Games and then, hmm, Super Monkey Ball. I tap the $9.99, I enter my iTunes password, I tap INSTALL, my credit card is charged and an icon appears on my phone. The bar fills and 20 seconds later . . .
I can play the best (controlwise) Super Monkey Ball game made thus far. The iPhone has an acceloreometer (that’s spelled wrong) so tilting it lets you turn a race car, move a monkey ball, or hopefully in the future, roll a Katamari.
The games so far are good. I’ve got Monkey Ball now and I’ve tried Crash Nitro Racing, Demon Solitaire, Tetris, Ms. Pac Man, and Tap Tap Revenge (a freebie). I love the freebies. I can get the NYT or AP headlines streamlined with special iPhone pages (they load super quick and often you can get the info without wifi), AOL IM is replacing texting for me, Weatherbug lets me know where the rain actually is and if I oughta cover the blueberry bushes this time, oh and I can make my phone make lightsaber noises, work as a flashlight, or, for $50 and only if my insurance company upgrades, I can buy a program that constantly updates my medical records. As a heart patient, having all my Xrays, test results, etc., in my pocket sounds great.
The potential for gaming and other useful application – casual, corporate, big or small – is staggering. For every “for pay” voice recorder at the apps store is a potentially better free one. Plus they’ve got everything covered from a flight plan program for pilots, to a Kindle rivaling ebook reader, a pocket drug reference, to one that simply makes your screen white or strobe (expect to see these at concerts soon). There are already hundreds of programs with more to come as this thing gains popularity. Did I mention that the new one is bigger, faster, and $200 cheaper? What happens when Apple, opting to make money on the blades, starts giving the razor away for free? What are the odds the next surprise gaming sensation is in the hands of a homebrew developer with the iPhone SDK. Sources say: Very High.
Yes, I know other devices have gotten here first. Gaming isn’t new and the NGage tanked bigtime. The difference is that the NGage was a game player with a phone – one where you had to cumbersomely switch games. Who needs that? iPhone is a multi-use device that happens to be a phone too and its games are stored on the phone itself. Apple isn’t going to win this by being better than rival phone games (even though they currently are and until someone can fund a major catchup strategy – should be for a long time). Or being better than DS and PSP games (they’re not, but really really close). They’re going to win by entrenchement. They were first, the took the bold steps, they made the store and they took the portable player crown with iPod. By making your movie playing iPod phone into a gaming system with unique tilt and touch controls, Apple has transformed my DS and PSP (which are still much better game systems than iPhone) into devices I look at and then put aside for need of pocket space.
So…
I carry my phone/music-player/portable computer/Internet device/email machine with me wherever I go as it is. Why not do my gaming on on there too? Hey non-gaming iPhone owner, check out this game! Cool huh? Like it? All you have to do is press the Apps button and . . .
FOR KIDS
Jirbo Games (all are good, breakout and matching are fun even for adults)
Super Monkey Ball (too hard for most under 10 and many over it too)
Tap Tap Revenge (hoping for AudioSurf or Phase, but for now this one is fun and free)
July 20th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I think you’re looking at this with Apple-tinted spectacles. No, blinkers.
It’s going to be a successful platform for Apple, but unless there’s a quantum leap in mobile phone economics, it’s never going to be the mainstream gaming system you predict. You’d have to be crazy to suggest a platform that costs $200 up front, possibly requires a credit check, is only available to people who live in certain areas, AND costs at least $70 a month to maintain is going to be the next mainstream winner.
July 20th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Alright, yeah, I was forgetting one small thing. That the iPod Touch doesn’t have any of those per-month fees. It’s expensive, yes – but that hasn’t stopped iPods flying off shelves, and if you compare it to the PSP at launch it’s “only” $100 more.
Damn you, now I have to rethink my position.
July 20th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
The big plus to me is the internal storage. You can carry loads of games, plus music, plus movies on an iPod touch and not have to carry around nor keep track of lots of easy-to-lose carts. Plus, the games are cheaper…Now that I think about it more, it’s little wonder Nintendo is talking up their “evergreen” games and adding “smartphone” abilities to the DS. Apple is a threat.
July 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I see what you are are saying (well kinda, I just skimmed it), but are you really going to see 6 year olds walking around with a iphone? Parents want to get there kids gameboys not cellphones. I could possibly see it as a psp. Well a little more likely anyway.
July 20th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Simon,
$200 is less than the PSP when it debuted and the iPhone does a lot more – a LOT more.
But yeah, locality, AT&T, credit check and the fees are a problem, sure. But you need to factor in that:. People are aleady paying those fees and dealing with those problems … and the cell phone is FAR more ubiquitous than the DS or PSP. iPhone is a lot more than a phone.
@umm
Yeah, not for kids. Though my kids really love Jirbo – those are all kiddie games – and they’re a top download. So… maybe not? Definitely not letting ’em play it like a GBA or DS. Those kids oughta have Leapster’s anyway.
July 20th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Good god, I paid $250 for the PSP? o_O What was I thinking? (Although I did sell off old systems to pay for it, so it wasn’t exactly out of pocket.. but still)
So yeah, you saw from my follow-up that perhaps my dismissal was rather hasty. The potential is there for the iPhone/iPod Touch to become a viable gaming platform if Apple provides the support. That means driving down the price of the platform with no strings attached (i.e. making an 8gb iPod Touch available for $200, $250 tops) and continuing to push for getting “real” games from “real” developers, not the old ports and knock-offs that the Mac gamer is used to.
If Apple don’t follow through, Nintendo and Sony have nothing to worry about.
July 20th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I picked up the 16GB Itouch the other day, but mostly as a music player. I oculd have got something else, but my wife already has a Nano and we like Itunes. For me, I don’t see it stopping me from playing PSP games, since I am more interested in games with a little more depth.
I would be tempted to get an Iphone, but there is one big issue…they decided to go with AT&T exclusively. They have lousy coverage in my state and had dismal customer service when I had them, so there is no way I could see myself getting one of these unless they added Verizon.
July 20th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
As an aside, why is there only enough room in the handheld market for one system? If the Iphone does well, will that mean the DS and PSP will be ‘killed’ and those companies will concede?
The overhyped console war hasn’t killed any company yet. I am not all that business savvy, but why can’t more than one company survive? If GM puts out a new car, people don’t wonder if that will put Ford under.
July 20th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I think the iPhone may cut into some of the sideline technophile DS/PSP market where folks were playing it because it was almost “cool” and had decent games on the go. I think the iPhone is a concern for the market segment made up of Moms, significant others, etc… who are picking up DSes due to the cute niche games that appeal to them (see Cary’s review of DS Crosswords).
IF people get ahold of iPhones, they will cut significantly into use (and sales) of PSPs and DSes. However, I see iPhones still as fairly big ticket items that are not going to be quite as mainstream. Sure, the teens and twentysomethings (maybe even some 30s) will be interested in the iPhone and market share there for DS/PSP will probably suffer, but not in the younger areas or the non-technophile mainstream.
As I see the PSP as more of a “tech gadget”, I think the PSP has more to fear from the iPhone than the DS. However, Sony’s in-house titles will need to be the big offsetting factor.
Me, I pay $8/month for my cell phone use so have no plans in “upgrading” to $70/month any time soon…
If the monthly charges drop significantly, or even go a route where you can use WiFi for telephony when available, then I think there will be some stronger problems for the game giants.
July 20th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Actually Simon, the price doesn’t have to drop. Apple’s model with the iPod has been an annual or bi-annual upgrade that renders the older model worthless.
How much are “old” IPhone 1’s going for now? How much will they be going for when the iPhone 3G Mark II – or whatever – comes out next year?
July 20th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
And SteveS, forgive a blog headline for a little hyperbole.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:44 am
No problem GD. My question was not really directed at you, but towards the predictions of dire consequences for whatever manufacturer.
Actually, I am excited. I got the Itouch for music, so I am pleased that there are some fun games. Usually, Apple and games don’t go in the same sentence unless you include “lack of.”
July 21st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I have loved my 32GB iPod Touch since I got it a couple of months ago. I use it for some light email and web browsing and video and PDA stuff as well as music. The App Store was a great addition for me, adding games to the already nice list of features.
I am currently playing a bunch of games, and all of us had fun playing Tap Tap Revolution over vacation and I taught my kids Othello. I also have some adventure, puzzle and other games (as well as obviously filling up on utilities).
But one thing struck me – I grabbed a Star Trek game, which is very similar to one I had on my Newton and have played in various incarnations for longer than Tetris … and the thing that struck me is that the iPhone / Touch is more like the PDA’s of the last 20 years than it is like the smartphones of the last couple.
I mean, on vacation I also brought my Pocket PC, which has portable versions of Doom, Heretic, Hexen, Wolf3D, as well as some things like Bejeweled 1 & 2, Bubble Babble, LodeRunner, Chess, Solitaire, Othello, and some strategy and RPG games. My other one has Call of Duty 2 as well (16MB graphics processor).
So what does that mean? Well, ask yourself – what has been the impact of the PDA market on the DS / PSP / GBA? Yeah, pretty much nuthin’. And while I think that the iPhone / Touch market will be somewhat bigger and better, paging through the stuff at the App Store reminds me of an upgraded version of e-tailers for PalmOS and Pocket PC apps 7-8 years ago.
That said, one of my favorite things is reading a review (or an article) and going to the App Store, grabbing the app instantly and getting to use it. Just grabbed a ToDo app while writing this.
July 21st, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Unlike a PDA an iPhone/Touch is more of a gateway tech. You buy a PDA because you want a pocket PC. Most people still don’t want a pocket PC or at least they don’t go shopping for it specifically. But phones and music players? Buyers are buying these for the least of their functions (phone/music player) and the ease of these apps will make this a huge success. The open sourcing allows for PC-like potential. And Apple stands to make a mint … by emulating the console market. (They’ve opened the door a crack —–soooooo contary to their nature ——-but will still make money off everything sold for the phone. This money will could become a Katamari ball that’ll bowl over any competition.)
The facxt that this stuff is so good out the gate is even more impressive.
Tell me more about the Trek game?
July 21st, 2008 at 5:10 pm
ntendo makes too much good software. The DS has buttons. The Touch doesn’t which eliminates alot of games. (It’s weird defending the DS for including buttons.) The DS is much cheaper. Plus I’m sure Nintendo is well underway with their next handheld design.
Sure the Touch has the App store and lower development/publishing costs as a result along with ultra-convenience, but not going to happen.
The Touch will be good for some games no doubt. And will probably be the best cellphone gaming platform, but……
I suppose they could come out with a button/d-pad attachment. 🙂 Even then Nintendo knows this market as you’ve seen lately with the Wii and DS. They know games. And as Apple knows there are advantage to doing both hardware and software.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I didn’t bring up the button issue because for the sort of market that I think they’d be going after (i.e. the Touch Generations buyers), no buttons are needed. Admittedly, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a touch interface is best, and of course it does limit you from doing certain types of games, but I really don’t believe it’s the issue I once thought it was.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I see you are very happy with your purchase which is a good thing.
But, for Apple to gain traction doesn’t mean Nintendo or Sony have to lose.
The DS didn’t see a million less sales when the iPhone debuted which suggest, as much as you like your iPhone, the ground work of Nintendo and Sony has already been laid for their handheld gaming systems.
Last sale figures of the Nintendo DS? Nearly 20 million units in the US alone. 20 million!
Last sale figures of the Sony PSP? More than 10 million units in Japan (still tracking down total US sales)
All I am saying is Nintendo and Sony don’t (and probably won’t) have to lose for you, or anyone else, to enjoy gaming on your iPhone.
Personally, I like my gaming device to be built for gaming. When I need to use the phone, I pick up the phone. But I’m probably just the kind of consumer the corporations and advertising companies really want to “converge”.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am
The ‘Star Trek’ game is DeepSpaceNewt, which is a port of the Newton game DSNewt by DejaVu (clever, eh? – link http://www.dejavusoftware.com/dsn/index.html). This, in turn, was based on the old Star Trek text game from mainframes to Apple ][ and so on. This version is ‘ok’, but wasn’t worth $8 (I chalk it up to Newt nostalgia!)
I do still see some parallels to the PDA world – in particular the Palm. They launched and sold more devices in a year than the other ‘serious’ PDA’s to date (Newton, HPLX and Psion) had sold in total over the course of several years. Quickly PalmPilot became synonymous with PDA sort of like Xerox and Kleenex. That spawned a huge market for add-on software. And a decade ago people really wanted PDA’s in ways they don’t now.
One big difference is that the relationship was different. Palm wasn’t hosting and taking a cut – it was independent vendors. They had no vested interest in what was sold, and therefore we ended up with 500 lousy clock apps. All that Palm (and later Microsoft) cared about was touting numbers, so they implicitly condoned hacks creating useless junk that filled up shareware sites.
I agree that for a 1.0 release, the App Store is pretty amazing. I could use more granularity in categories and more advanced search methods. And let’s not forget that the system completely lacks a demo / trial system!
I guess one area I somewhat disagree with you on is the commercial impact of the iPhone *in the context of competing with the DS / PSP*. The $200 ‘price cut’ has been debunked as ‘razors & blades’ pretty much everywhere … you lose the ‘savings’ within the first year. Which is not to say that the system won’t sell well – it has already done very well – but it is competing in the fairly narrow smartphone market. If anything, it will impact the PSP – which is much more centered in the ‘hey, look at me, I’m soooo cool’ market than the DS crowd (particularly anyone playing Guitar Hero On Tour in public 😀 ).
As for actually gaming on the iPod Touch, I still find it only ‘good’. The bottom line is this – the leaked capacitance sensor of the iPhone offers neither the precision nor sensitivity of the PDA screen (also the DS). I have been putting loads of time into the Sega CD port ‘Vay’ – which is really good by the way – but am constantly dealing with control issues I wouldn’t see with a traditional touch screen. But, on the positive side – it is reportedly at least as powerful as a Dreamcast, and is definitely more technically capable than either the DS or PSP.
Aaron:
– The DS has sold ~75 million worldwide, and the PSP ~35.
– You are right – this is not a ‘zero sum game’.
– Most people don’t want to carry multiple devices (I’m looking at my cell phone, PDA and iPod Touch on my left right now … ), but they also don’t like crap … like using most cell phones as PDA’s or music players (or video players or web browsers). The iPhone has the best portable video player I’ve used, excellent music capability (not as good as a dedicated iPod), best handheld web browser I’ve used, excellent utilities and just the right amount of flexibility and control. It is about the best case for a mainstream ‘convergence device’ I think I have ever seen.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
What about battery. People like long battery life in phones.
That is the reason I don’t use my current phone for an mp3 player. I’d be charging the darn thing all the time. Gaming is worse, especially if there is any 3d elements in it, will suck your battery dry in a couple hours.
Couple this with the fact that you can’t (easily) swap batteries with the iphone/pod, it really emphasizes how nice it is to have seperate devices (at this time).
~S