Apple poised to become a mobile gaming force

tank

Sorry, but no gamer is gonna trade in his or her DS/PSP to game on an iPod or iPhone. Apple is far from poised to take over the portable gaming market. The app store games can't compete with Super Mario Bros, Zelda, Metroid, Mario Kart (no... the "kart" racing games for iPhone/Touch don't hold a candle), etc...
This guy doesn't know gaming. Period.

BOK, your points are well taken, and if you own a DS or PSP, you certainly don't lack imagination nor a GREAT choice of games -- the best games I've ever played, hands-down, have been on the Nintendo DS platform over the past several years. I owned the phat DS from the day of its intro and traded up to the DS Lite about 1.5 years after that. I'll miss the DS platform (I'm sure I'll get another some day), but simply couldn't afford to keep that AND get an iPod touch right now. My comments above concerning the iPod touch as a gaming platform above come from surprise more than conviction. I know there won't be anything like Castlevania on iPhone, or if there is, it likely won't have the fun factor and reliable control scheme of the DS. However, as I mentioned earlier, iTouch/iPhone is a suprisingly good CASUAL gaming system and fits my gaming needs much better right now...

People who slam the iPhone as a gaming device have no imagination. All they know how to do is compare something new to what they already have. If everyone thought like that, the whole world would still be riding around in bullock carts.

Apple designs its products to be portable media views, not handheld gaming systems. Sure, they will continue to sell iTunes games, but Nintendo will always be better for people who seriously want to play video games, because Nintendo designs gaming systems. How clunky is it to press non-tactile buttons on the iPhone screen? Very. Until Apple figures out a way for these buttons to literally pop-up from the screen, the iPhone will always have a lesser experience than the Gameboy. For better or worse, the iPhone just takes gaming as an after thought.

The games just aren't there, and neither is the quality. I've yet to play an iPhone game which is any better than what other mobile platforms are offering (i.e. n-gage).

Graphics nowhere near live up to the hype generated around the launch of 2.0, Apple still have a loing way to go IMHO.

The biggest problem with the iPod Touch as a gaming device is it's batter, and it isn't user accessible either. Comparing to other devices, at least their batteries are accessible. However, Apple certainly does have the support to compete. If they can either make it user accessible to the batter (like that'll happen), or increase the battery by like 3 fold, then it might work. But really, this is the best iPod there has been, it's my first, and that's the reason, it's the best one I've ever seen. Honestly the only let down is the battery life, and maybe the Windows support for syncing items like the calendar...

Cute talking bits, but it's just not true at this point. The iPod Touch is pretty good at doing music/photos/videos, and the web/apps (when they aren't crashing), but taking over from Nintendo, and to a much lesser extent Sony, in the mobile gaming market, I doubt it.

I have a PSP, and it was easy to mod, and add various emulators and hacks. The NES/SNES/Genesis emus run great, and the PSP games are quite feature-rich and expansive. When I jailbreaked my Touch, I added the NES/Genesis emus, but the controls are just too awkward and uncomfortable. Some of the other app store games I've tried are very simplistic, don't utilize multi-touch, or are primarily racing games. Games like racing and sports have been done to death on the PSP.

Plus Sony and Nintendo have established franchises, which is what usually gets people to buy into a particular console in the first place. Paying $10 for Pac-Man isn't going to cut it.

In October, I sold my 3-year old Nintendo DS-Lite and my 1-year old iPod nano (3rdGen) on eBay to "trade up" to the 2ndGen 8GB iPod touch. My rationale was not so much for convergence -- reducing the amount of gadgets that I used for my music, gaming, etc. -- but that I had turned into more of a "casual gamer," and didn't have the time (nor increasingly, the money) to invest in the best DS games out there (Phantom Hourglass, The World Ends With You, Metroid Prime Hunters, etc.). I cannot tell you how much I've enjoyed my new iPod touch -- it is by far the best and most functional iPod I've ever owned. Surprisingly, I use it LEAST for music, though it serves me well and holds up perfectly in the gym during my daily workout. I use it most for the casual gaming in the evenings, and for web surfing and email in bed, right before going to sleep. Some of the games for the iPod touch and iPhone, both free and paid, are astounding in terms of graphics, playability and engagement and I can only imagine they will get better with time. My only VERY minor gripes is that I wish Apple could cram some more battery power into the iPod touch (doing all of the above, pretty heavily, I need to recharge about every 1.5 days) and I'm looking for more WiFi multiplayer games. Aside from those nits, I can't recommend the 2ndGen iPod touch enough -- I've enjoyed it WAY more than I ever did my Nintendo DS Lite!

How many times are they going to trudge out this story? Sorry, but it will take Apple years and years to even come close to Nintendo's firm grasp on the handheld gaming market. I love both companies, but Apple isn't going to threaten Nintendo anytime soon.