Filed under: Gaming, Developer, iPhone
Developers talk about iPhone's gaming prowess
Now that the App Store has launched various developers are talking about the iPhone's capabilities as a gaming machine. Gizmodo paraphrases a developer from EA as saying: "On a scale of the three, it's in between the DS and the PSP, but sliding more towards the PSP." Over at Kotaku they have SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery saying that the iPhone is about on a par with the old Sega Dreamcast.
On the downside, control remains a bit of an issue. The EA developer compared the iPhone's accelerometer to "a loose analog stick" with lots of "random data" that has to be smoothed out. In any case, I think it is impressive to hear developers talk about how powerful the iPhone really is. This naturally gives good reason to hope for even more impressive games as developers get more comfortable with the device and its capabilities.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AmericanPegasus said 8:22AM on 7-17-2008
I love the iPhone and all of it's games, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say it's on par with the Dreamcast. Maybe they meant to say Saturn; that I would believe. And if it is *is* that powerful, then they need to prove it for goodness sake. The monkey in Monkey Ball only being a sprite (not rendered like other games), the lackluster detail in most racing games, and the flood of basic, quickly-assembled titles is not helping their claim. That said though, if PopCap gets it's life together and releases things like Peggle and Bookworm Adventures on it quickly the iPhone could capture the casual games market. My wife has played the iPhone non-stop the past few days, despite us having so many other options available.
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bob said 8:39AM on 7-17-2008
itll take a little while before these games hit full potential, compare a playstation game from launch to one at the end of its lifetime, quite a difference, also the games in the store now have been developed in under about 2 months, imagine what a proper development cycle will produce, we'll see some good stuff coming out in september onwards.
Josh said 9:57AM on 7-17-2008
Actually, is is comparable to the Dreamcast, since it uses an updated version of the PowerVR2 found in the Dreamcast.
Josh said 8:47AM on 7-17-2008
Jail broken apps used the accelerometers great. Now the "Pros" at EA say it is tricky? labyrinth was great when I played it in reguards to the accelerometers. Maybe its just now "easy" enough for the EA guys.
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Peter Beddow said 8:58AM on 7-17-2008
Any chance of having a plug-in controller? (e.g., into the dock?)
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Ross said 9:42AM on 7-17-2008
Yeah I just thinking a good idea for gaming would be an ergonomically shaped flat object slightly larger than the iPhone that the iPhone (or iPod Touch) slots into, which:
(i) has a mini analogue stick (or cross-pad) on one side
(ii) has a few hardware buttons (how many is up for debate) on the other (maybe some finger buttons too)
(iii) has a battery pack and/or chargeable battery
(iv) has more GB of flash disk space to store games on (using card slots for upgradability?)
(v) could even have extra accelerometer functionality like that new Wii thing.
All designed by Mr Ive himself.
I think that would sell like crazy...
Piotr Malecki said 12:37PM on 7-17-2008
You mean a PSP body?
Would be cool, but it would make the iPhone too big to use as a phone. Would you want to hold a PSP to your ear? It would also have to limit the sale of games that used it, because you know that it would cost at least $50.
samu said 10:32AM on 7-17-2008
Even something as simple as Bejewelled slaughters the battery on my iPod Touch. If my experience is typical, this is a pretty substantial hurdle to overcome.
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NNTPgrip said 11:35AM on 7-17-2008
The thing is, I don't see myself playing games that are too involved on my iPhone. I bought Monkey ball, didn't like it, Bandicoot racing, liked it some, Motion-X Poker(with the dice), play the hell out of it. Simple game, I know, but I think these work better for a phone. Maybe it's just my mindset, or the control scheme, or that I'm getting older. Who knows...
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nnlucky said 2:55PM on 7-17-2008
I love simple puzzle games, and the iPhone has been a great interface for that. I've spent hours playing Sudoku, crosswords, Imangi, etc, and have found the iPhone to be a great platform for that kind of game. I think that with time, more developers will figure out how to leverage the strengths of the iPhone to create an excellent gaming experience.
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ChrisW said 3:12PM on 7-17-2008
Folks just need to learn how to optimize for the iPhone. If you look at a game like Aqua Forest you see a lot of pretty effects and all but it bogs down so much when fun stuff starts to happen. If they'd optimize their graphics and sound effects though, it would be a lot more playable.
The same is true for Aurora Feint. Great crisp graphics but it can slow down a lot when the effects and sound files and animations are all going at the same time.
They'll get there. The hardware is there for a very good gaming platform and the mass appeal is there to make it profitable for a lot of devs so its looking good all around.
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