Sunday, August 30th 2009, 4:00 AM
As the game offerings for the iPhone grow in numbers and sophistication, the touch-screen gadget has emerged as a competitor to hand-held gaming devices such as the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. The result: Major game companies are rethinking how they handle the market.
It's been two years since the iPhone hit stores, and one since Apple threw open the doors of its online App Store, from which users can download software applications. The store boasts more than 1.5 billion downloads to date.
Some game companies have chosen to join the race by remaking their most popular offerings for the iPhone. In May, video-game giant Sega put out an iPhone version of Sonic the Hedgehog. In June, Electronic Arts, creator of the hugely popular Sims franchise, offered an iPhone version of The Sims 3 that shot to the top of the most-downloaded list despite its $9.99 price tag, steep by App Store standards. (The price has since dropped to $6.99.)
Likewise, online gaming sites see the iPhone as a new platform for the addictively time-wasting games you may have played on the sly at school or the office. Early this month, AddictingGames.com went to the App Store with a selection of its tempting time-killers, now selling for 99 cents. The developers of Dream Day Wedding, a free online wedding-planning game that's seen more than 50 million downloads on PC and Nintendo DS, are about to release an iPhone version set in New York City.
The advantages of selling in the App Store are simple, says Don Ryan, chief operating officer of Oberon Media, the parent company of Dream Day's developer, I-play: People can easily find and install your game because "almost everyone is superfamiliar with how to navigate the iTunes store."
What's more, game designers are inspired by the advantages of the phone itself, such as its touch screen and the accelerometer, which changes the orientation of the screen when the user tips the phone to one side.
"There's so much innovation within the device that it has released this explosion of innovation on the developer side," says Ryan.
But game companies that already boast their own hand-held devices, such as Nintendo, are slower to jump on the bandwagon. Nintendo has held off releasing iPhone versions of Super Mario and Kirby.
"If you look at the price points on the iPhone games, they're nowhere near the traditional prices of those titles," says Mike Germano, president of Brooklyn-based new-media marketing agency Carrot Creative, which has developed iPhone apps for clients. "Especially in a digital economy, where it pays to follow the trends, for Nintendo to come out with a $29.99 Mario Kart game for the iPhone would seem out of whack."
While some of the games on Sony's PSP can be found for the iPhone, Sony recently announced it will debut its own "bite-size" games, called PlayStation Minis, priced in line with App Store bargains.
But it can be perilous to refuse iPhone gamers what they want. The open structure of the App Store makes it a technological Wild West where independent game companies can challenge big firms for their territory.
For instance, fans of the game Grand Theft Auto have long pined for an iPhone version, and on Aug. 20 they got one, though it didn't come from the game's publisher, Rockstar Games.
Instead, Gameloft, a leading publisher of downloadable games, created Gangstar: West Coast Hustle, in which users swipe cars and blast enemies against the backdrop of L.A. gang life. The game does little to hide its similarities with Grand Theft Auto. One online reviewer raves that it is "the best GTA clone on the iPhone."
The iPhone gets a special boost from allowing players to challenge each other using wireless Internet. While the addition of Wi-Fi to a portable gaming gadget isn't new (both the DS and PSP have it), running a game off a device that also contains your address book takes competition to a new level.
"If apps are done correctly, you're connected to all the people in your contact list," says Germano. "You can play against everyone you know."
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