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Apple Pushing iPod Touch As A “Game Machine”
Following initial confusion over how to market the iPod Touch, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has said that the company is now pushing the handheld as a dedicated games machine.
“Originally, we weren’t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine. We started to market it that way, and it just took off,” he said.
“We don’t need to add new stuff. We need to get the price down where everyone can afford it,” Jobs told the New York Times as Apple reduced the cost of the entry-level, 8GB iPod Touch to $199.
According to Apple, the App Store now houses over 21,178 “game and entertainment titles” for iPhone and iPod Touch. In comparison, the company says there are 3,680 games for Nintendo’s DS and just 607 for Sony’s PSP.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
when apple struggled for survive everyone loved it.it was very cool and sophisticated to say good wards about them even if u haven't touched an apple pc.now they are into success many go negative even without arguments...anyway i believe you can't compare iphone with psp or ds not because is better or worse but different in many ways...
I'm not totally up to date with the Iphone thing being in the UK but aren't Iphone sales fairly mediocre outside of the US? I mean you get a free phone with your contract these days in western Europe so I cannot imagine an expensive phone like this taking off in a big way here.
the traditional game industry are now the other side of the fence. The cries that the games are not proper games could just as easily have come from the mouths of the people who made cluedo and monopoly in the 70's when the atari broke cover. It IS a gaming platform, just not the kind edge fans are used to. It fills a huge hole in the market; you have 5 minutes to spare and want some gaming relief from boredom, enter the iPod. You just can't carry world of warcraft and rainbow 6 around in your pocket, even if you could squeeze it into a handheld. Once word gets about that things that cost £30 on the DS, such as classic books can be had for free or 59p on the ipod and are actually better quality, the DS is going to be facing huge competition. The first wave of games for the traditional game lovers is now building, with Monkey Island raising eye brows amongst fans and cynics for it's quality. Apple just made the dev kit available to everyone and waited to see what grew. Which is exactly the same policy Sony took with the PS1.
While I agree with some points, to say that the iTouch game quality is on par with the DS is laughable.
Yes, the games are better than the worst games on the DS but then anything is. The iTouch will, in no way compete with the likes of Mario, Zelda, GTA, NInja Gaiden, etc.
I've got every major system aside from PS3 and PSP and I spend most of my time on my iPhone.
THe iPod touch not even an iPhone without the phone. No camera and arbitrary software restrictions make sure of that. It's also only a gaming platform if your definition of gaming is very very very lenient. The PSP and the DS are gaming machines, because no matter what other PC or console might be around you, they theoretically have the power to pull you away from those. But the iPod touch is nothing more than a quick fix with weird controls and quickly depleting batteries. There is hardly any game in which your fingers do not constantly obstruct the screen.
If Apple was serious about the iPod being for games, they would release a controller cradle. Imagine a Dualshock with batteries inside, the iPod mounted in between the trigger humps. THAT is gaming. Everything else is just not worth bothering.
Wow. Just wow.
But the iPod touch is nothing more than a quick fix with weird controls
Yes, be cause touch controls are so "weird". Maybe you forgot that the DS was built around the same idea.
This reminds me of how everyone was,. and still is to some degree, complaining about how motion controls on the Wii are not the "proper" way to play games. Now look at Sony and Microsoft. They are trying to shove out their own version of motion controls to get in on the market the Wii created.
Despite what you think, there is no "proper" way to play a game. A game can be played in any way the designer sees fit.
If Apple was serious about the iPod being for games, they would release a controller cradle. Imagine a Dualshock with batteries inside, the iPod mounted in between the trigger humps. THAT is gaming. Everything else is just not worth bothering.
Yes, they should make a PSP/DS combo rather than trying to stand out and be unique. We all know that gaming should stagnate in the same controls and play styles. Gaming is absolutely perfect the way it is and no one should try to do anything different.
I think you missed his point, the physical control interface is extremely important. Only being able to map controls onto the same screen which is used to see the game is extremely limiting. There's no doubt it works well for certain games and genres, but for many other games it would be a huge hindrance.
When compared to cell phone/mobile games, the iTouch/iPhone is superior, but as a platform, compared to the PSP and DS it falls short.
All this "game platform" talk, is strictly a marketing move, in the article they even state that the iTouch, alongside the iPhone didn't really have its own identity or defining purpose.
I agree with 4thVariety. The Apple IPhone will always be a mobile devices and nothing more. Steve Jobs can try as hard as he wants pushing it to be a game machine but casual gamers and hardcore gamers would choose PSP and DS any day over an iPhone as their handheld system.
You should tell that to the millions of iPhone/Ipod Touch owners who buy games on a regular basis. I sure they would completely agree and trash their device just because you say that what they are playing aren't really games.
Nothing that is done on the DS cannot be done on the iPhone.
While the iPhone/iTouch would satisfy the type of gaming I would like to be able to do while on the move, I completely disagree you can do everything to the same degree on iPhone as you would a DS. If Apple released a version with a D-Pad, analogue stick, A and B buttons and another touchscreen then I would say it could rival that device as a gaming platform. But at the moment Zachary the iPhone gets 'pwned'... Hands down, the DS is a far more capable device. As for the PSP, that's a more traditional gaming device, touching on licenses that the iPhone/iTouch could never handle to the degree that PSP does. Note that the IPhone could handle most licenses but DS and PSP versions will always be better depending on the content type. DS games like Chinatown wars may be better on iPhone than PSP but that's because iPhone has touch controls suited to DS games, I imagine other DS games like Ninja Gaiden would also be better on iPhone. However games like FF: Dissidia, Monster Hunter and Crisis Core are great on the PSP, a more traditional gaming device which suits certain types of traditional games. There's nothing wrong with traditional and there's nothing wrong with innovative or casual, they meet different needs.
The iPhone much more than DS or PSP is limited by its control scheme to more casual games. I will be interested to see how Chinatown Wars turns out, but I can guarantee you now it will pale in comparison to the DS version whether or not they put in the same amount of development effort. It's a gimped console compared to the DS.
Nobody is putting down Apples amazing little toy (Unless some retarded trolls turn up), I personally would much prefer an iPhone over a PSP or DS, but purely because it's a fully functioning phone, has a brilliant web browser, a lot of useful applications and a host of fun, casual games. However as a pure gaming device, its severely hampered compared to both DS and PSP in different ways. If Apple modified it's device so it had a D-Pad etc I probably wouldn't like it as much. I like that it's not as much of a gaming device as the PSP and DS, I have better things to do than get into some hardcore Monster Hunter every moment of spare time I have. My productivity would be at an all time low.
But it's not really a games machine. Apple, if you want to "get into" the games industry, then release a proper system for fuck sake.
Oh, and stop ramming this shovelware shit down our throats. It's not welcome!
don't you remember apple pipin?
You've obviously never played Mini Gore!! (for 0.59p)
Ipod games serve a purpose, Ideal for some light entertainment on the bus or train. It's not like Apple are positioning the iPhone as a direct competitor to the DS or PSP!! Apart from the early N-gage phones, which in hindsight, too far ahead of their time. Apple are managing to be quite unique!
I have said this before. Portable devices like the iPhone, which can run games and applications, as well as being an organizer and a communication device. Will one day become common place.
"It's not like Apple are positioning the iPhone as a direct competitor to the DS or PSP!!"
Um... they kinda are. Did you see their presentation? They very clearly squared off against the DS and PSP.
DSi and PSP are dedicated handheld consoles. The iphones is... well a phone albeit one with lots of gadgetry and entertain features built in. As much as Apple may say they want too or can compete with the likes of Nintendo or Sony, their product, as good as it is, is not even in the same league.
The popularity of the iphone and it's applications speak for itself. Its good little machine, there is some good games and applications at a low cost, but I can't see it ever getting the sort of games developed for it as current handheld consoles.
The technology is quite simply not powerful enough. Maybe a couple of years down the lines things will be different. To truly compete with this generation of handheld consoles, Apple will need to get the developers producing a high standard of games like God of War - Chain of Olympus or GTA China Town wars. Which is simply not achievable with their current technology, until they can do that, the iphone will never be competing directly with the likes of Sony or Nintendo!
At the moment iphone provides a quick entertainment fix, sure the games are fun. But you can't class it as a serious games machine.
Er... Actually... there was a God of War game made for cellphones that's quite spectacular for a mobile game - look it up. In fact, a LOT of mobile games that AREN'T quickie cash cow apps are really good example of mobile games being as good as or better than handheld releases.
Doom RPG, Orcs & Elves, Pathway to Glory, High Seize, Rifts; promise of Power, Settlers of Catan, and so forth and so on. You don't need a "dedicated handheld console" - just a developer dedicated to bringing console quality games to any handheld platform.
I do agree on the Touch not being the go-to system for 'core" gamers, though...
g.
Yeah I agree with you, dude. I'm just saying that Apple are trying to market it like they are competing with PSP and DS. Check out the presentation.