Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Hardware, Software, Apple, iPhone, Holidays, iPod touch
Pachter: iPod touch is "dangerous" for game publishers
It's been just over a year since we officially noticed that Apple was pushing towards gaming on the iPod touch, and while their advertising hasn't stopped pushing, the actual push hasn't quite gotten to a shove. If you look at this holiday season, certainly the iPod touch is a popular device, butt kids are still asking for the PSP Go and the Nintendo DSi, handheld units meant specifically for gaming. If Apple wants to trounce gaming the same way they've trounced the smartphone market with the iPhone, they've got a long road to travel.But don't count them out yet, says analyst Michael Pachter -- he says the iPod touch is the "most dangerous thing that ever happened to the [major video game] publishers, ever." Apple's main handheld gaming device is $200 this Christmas, but he says next year it'll be $149, and the year after that, maybe $129. When, in the future, you can put down $99 and walk away with an iPod touch, says Pachter, then "every nine year old kid is going to have one of those instead of a DS or a PSP, and if you train kids that this is the game that you want to play... How about Tetris? Why would you pay USD 20 for Tetris when you can get it for USD 6.99 or USD 3.99 on iPod touch?"
Interesting point. It's true that console manufacturers have been hesitant to lower prices on their products (in fact, Sony's latest version of the PSP actually had a price increase), while Apple seems committed to pushing the prices on iPods ever cheaper. And yes, as long as companies keep releasing the same games on both devices for $30 on the DS and less than $10 on the App Store (and why shouldn't they -- no packaging, no distribution costs), people will go for the cheaper one. I don't expect to see the iPod touch as a huge winner this year (as a gaming competitor, I mean -- of course it'll sell by the truckloads), but Pachter seems right: wait until the prices drop, and the iPod touch might have traditional gaming devices shaking in their D-pads.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
stanley patterson said 8:20AM on 10-17-2009
A butt kid would ask for a PSP Go. A smart kid would want a iPod Touch!
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tim said 9:10AM on 10-17-2009
I don't think that he has noticed that he used butt instead of but yet. :)
Derek said 10:18AM on 10-17-2009
I was just about to ask what a "Butt Kid" is. Thank you for clarifying.
digiboi said 8:14AM on 10-19-2009
I have both a DSi and an iPod touch
The touch is not a great interface for games. If apple wants this to work, they need a controller because touching obscures the screen, isn't precise for action games and gestures don't work for shooters or shmups
Ethan said 8:22AM on 10-17-2009
Maybe DSiwareand PSN stuff will drop a bit too.
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Deon said 9:37AM on 10-17-2009
Don'y hold your breath for Nintendo or Sony to drop their prices on their games.
Ethan said 9:39AM on 10-17-2009
If they truly feel the heat from iTunes, as Pachter says, they'd have to.
Aerospeed said 12:58PM on 10-17-2009
As long as Sony & Nintendo can reinforce the idea that the iPod Touch is for "casual" games and REAL hardcore gamers use the DS and PSP, then I think they're pretty safe. Most kids with enough disposable income will just buy an iPod in addition to their handheld gaming device.
Rick Lobrecht said 8:27AM on 10-17-2009
The Touch gets even more economical when you have two of them, which you want the same game for. If you have two DSs, and they both want to play the same game at the same time, that's $60 - $70 for two game cartridges. The same downloaded game for a Touch can be loaded onto both of your Touches for the same price.
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crsh said 9:20AM on 10-17-2009
Major game developers and publishers are already offering titles for the iPod Touch/iPhone platform tho, they're not stupid enough to skip the opportunity; I don't think there's any risk for them if they embrace it instead of trying to ignore it.
As for Nintendo and Sony, the iPod Touch is a minor rival at best; North America and Europe are the only markets where Apple may do noticeable damage to their business, but the iPod Touch/iPhone is practically non-existent in Asia, it doesn't pose much of a threat to Nintendo and Sony there (Asia is a much, much bigger market anyway).
ijuggle5 said 9:27AM on 10-17-2009
I don't think you can compare physical product to downloadable content. Can you play a downloaded DSi game on more than one DSi?
Sony allows you to register up to five PSPs on a single account and play any downloaded games on all five at the same time.
crsh said 11:14AM on 10-17-2009
I'm talking about network play off a single cartridge, not a downloaded game; it's officially called Download Play, it supports up to 8 players for a single game card.
Dogzilla said 9:17AM on 10-17-2009
Well, sorry but games are overpriced anyway. $30 for a handheld game - especially when the cost of manufacturing is so ridiculously low after the initial development cost - is ridiculous. If game companies have built an entire business around the $30 price point and can't sustain themselves at lower prices...too bad. History is filled with the corpses of industries that couldn't adapt to technological change. Saying the quality of games will go down is just like the telegraph companies warning against the telephone because it would encourage licentious behavior among the youth of the time. Adapt or die - that's how it is with capitalism, although lately it's more like "refuse to adapt and whine and buy out congressmen".
As an aside, he couldn't have picked a better example: charging $20 for a copy of Tetris - a game that first came out 25 years ago, is available online for free and is used as a programming tutorial - is nothing short of ridiculous.
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ijuggle5 said 9:24AM on 10-17-2009
The price for PSP and DSi games won't drop as low as iPod games because iPod games are not rated by the ESRB. That additional expense cost the publisher of "Fieldrunners" an extra $2500 before releasing the game on the Playstation Network. Plus the price of the PSP dev kits ($2000) are much higher than what is needed for developing an iPod touch game ($99/year). I, for example, already have access to a bunch of Intel Macs capable of developing for iPod touch, but almost nobody has PSP dev kits laying around.
This article is my source:
http://playstationlifestyle.net/2009/10/12/esrb-approval-forces-high-price-on-psp-minis/
I can't find the article on PSP dev kit prices right now, but it recently dropped from $10,000 to $2,000 to help encourage PSP minis development.
Personally I'd rather play games on the PSP, but I don't always have it with me like my iPod. I enjoy the added depth and levels of PSP games. I just bought "Harbor Master" ($.99) for the iPod and it only has 6 levels, while I'm 20 hours into "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII" ($14 used at EB) and about half way through. I Think most PSP games have more bang-for-the-buck than most iPod games. There are, of course exceptions, but I generally spend the extra on PSP games. iPod games are more impulse buys while I research PSP games before shelling out for them.
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Deon said 9:46AM on 10-17-2009
Yeah but the average person don't care about Final Fantasy or the games you mention most care about Madden NFL and other sports titles. If you can spend $250 on a PSP Go to justified to buy it just for one or two games that's your choice. Majority of people like what the New iPod Touch and the iPhone 3GS has to offer. I'm glad to see Apple a American Company gaining market share. We been giving way to much money to these foreign companies such as Sony and Nintendo and they don't care about the consumers in the end because all they want is our money. As long as Apple made one point which really matter to me and well as rest of the world "We actually get more for our money with the iPod Touch and or iPhone!"
Average White Boy said 7:10PM on 10-17-2009
You still have to consider, when you're talking about things like game depth, that the iPhone/Touch gaming platform is only a little over a year old. Both the PSP and DS would be considered veteran gaming systems many years old with both having console gaming as part of their heritage. I think that in a year or so, Apple's mobile platform will have much deeper games. Wouldn't you think that would be part of it's growth? Also, Apple could still drop a bomb by releasing a dedicated gaming device with real buttons and touch UI that can still do everything else that the Touch can. Seriously, when was the last time anyone made a telephone call on a PSP or DS? I believe the Apple iPhone/Touch platform is being judged unfairly. The Touch was called the funnest iPod ever. It was never called a gaming device. It just happened to also play games and it has lived up to it's reputation as being a fun game-playing device. A media player shouldn't even come close to challenging a dedicated gaming device and yet it's happening.
Let's face it, the Apple mobile gaming platform is really just a baby compared to those other gaming platforms and yet it's still threatening both of them seriously.
Dan Mosqueda said 9:34AM on 10-17-2009
Any iPhone-owning parent of younger children knows 1 thing is true: the iPhone will pacify your child in the back seat in a nano second. Sure they goo it up, but it takes seconds to clean it up, a small price for peace and quiet in the car. Ok, what does this matter? Well, my now 7 year old can use every function on my iPhone like it's second nature, including browsing the web.
One of my co-workers has a 2 year old who operates her iPhone like a pro. BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): an iPod Touch purchase for my 7 year old in another year or two is a no-brainer. His DS is already gathering dust. Now that the Touch is faster and more powerful, kids will begin showing up with them (my teen has an iPhone, else he'd have a Touch now).
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Dan said 10:32AM on 10-17-2009
I bought an iPod Touch because I was sick of overpaying for crappy DS games executed on a crappy display. I have a DSi and will keep it for the (few and far between) must-have DS games. When it comes to pick-up-and-play games, the iPod Touch blows the DS out of the water.
I'd be interested to see what % of DS/PSP/misc console game budgets are used for advertising, PR, schwag, and corporate bloat. Let the game speak for itself. Long live the independent developer.
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Flyboybob said 11:24AM on 10-17-2009
If my 12 year old son is any example, he has a DS, an iPod Touch and a Sony Playstation II (way to many gadgets). He only uses the iPod Touch for music and his school work. When he wants to play games he uses the Playstation or the DS. He has downloaded a few games from the App Store but he loses interest in them quickly. I have downloaded a few on my iPod Touch and I lose interest in them even faster. The 12 year old market drives the game business. The iPod Touch is better as a pocket size computer than as a game device.
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Jordan said 11:16AM on 10-17-2009
ipod touch and iphone gaming is a step backwards as far as the evolution of video games.
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