Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Developer, App Store
EA, Namco set sights on iPhone development
Two big gaming companies have made stark moves towards some major iPhone development in the future. Electronic Arts has made what seems to be the strongest move: they've put together a division in the company specifically for making iPhone games, and not just any games. Specifically, the kind that cost 99 cents. 8lb Gorilla is the name of the group they've put together in-house, and apparently it's a bunch of young developers given the task of putting together quick and cheap games about once a month that can sell for 99 cents, keep customers happy, and still bring in a profit for EA. The first title out of the group is a game called Zombies and Me, which appears to be an action game where you blow up zombies with explosives. Who wouldn't pay 99 cents for that one, right?
Namco is also making moves toward the platform, though not that specific (or risky, though EA's gambit could pay off big if the young devs turn out a hit). They've created an "Apple Games" division within their company, designed to make games specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch, and presumably for any other platforms that Apple decides to release games on. We hear the Mac is pretty popular -- does "Apple Games" include those other computers they make? Yet another Pac Man remake is the first title from them, but hopefully more original releases are coming.
Very interesting to see major companies start setting aside resources specifically to target the App Store's unique market. Mac gamers have been fighting for years to get devs to pay attention to their platform, and now it looks like Apple's handheld devices, along with the relatively easy money of the App Store, have finally done it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mex said 4:03PM on 7-23-2009
First time that a mobile device get such huge interest from big game companies! Well done apple!
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AdventTech67 said 4:12PM on 7-23-2009
This is very interesting, considering everything is moving towards handheld pocket devices. Seems kind of GREEN to me.
JUS my 2 cents,,,
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crsh said 4:23PM on 7-23-2009
It'd be nice if they'd start off by offering more OSX ports of their games instead of focusing only on the iPhone.
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Jason Martin said 4:33PM on 7-23-2009
Great just what we need. More 99-cent games that flame out after a week. I really want to see some quality games that begin to rival other gaming platforms in terms of depth and replayability. There are a few in the App Store now, but these "penny games" seem to be all over the place.
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Jerod said 4:45PM on 7-23-2009
I'm waiting for Blizzard to release some classics like StarCraft. The game only needs a 40mHz processor and 32 MB of memory.
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tpfilm said 8:17PM on 7-23-2009
Could Madden NFL (iMadden?) be in the wings? NASCAR?
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Brian Reading said 4:06AM on 7-24-2009
Madden NFL has already been announced if I'm not mistaken.
George said 10:41AM on 7-25-2009
Namco should fix thier Ms. Pac-Man app for 3.0
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