Apple Says PSP, DS “In The Past”
After revolutionizing how people listen to music by turning the MP3 player from an often ignored device secondary in popularity to the outdated CD into a powerhouse brand with the iPod they’ve turned their sights on the gaming industry. With the release of the iPhone and the launch of the App Store Greg Joswiak, a marketing representative for the iPhone has come forth and said that the iPhone is the future of gaming and that the DS and PSP are both “in the past”.
He claims that the digital distribution model that they’ve adopted for their gaming system is what solidly puts the iPhone ahead of the game even more than the touch-based control scheme. He also cites the low cost of the iPhone games versus the dedicated hand helds which he attributes mostly to the cost of manufacturing and distributing the units. He says that there are ‘full 3D games’ in addition to the hordes of casual games.
Did anyone point out to Joswiak that both Nintendo and Sony are exploring digital distribution for their handhelds? The iPhone might be doing quite well for a combination telephone/pda/iPod/gaming system but the PSP and the DS are still going strong. Some of that might be the fact that game developers who make games for ‘hardcore’ gamers are still sticking to the DS and PSP as the existing consoles. The thing that Apple is ignoring is that the touch screen control scheme is rather limiting in many ways. Even with the motion controls you limit your gameplay formats. Put too many buttons on the screen and you run out of space for the graphics.