My prediction on what gaming will soon be like.
People were saying the iPhone was just waiting to happen. Heck, when the Video Plackback feature came, people wondered why it hadn't happened yet.
And soon iGame will meet the same reaction.
Apple has been pushing itself into many more markets recently, trying to become a part of the average home. It thought cheap and sleek was the way to go. Apple was right. Just take a look at MP3 market: 80% of MP3s sold so far have been all iPods. Think about it. 80% of the market. And iPod didn’t win because of power; many MP3’s have more memory and bigger screens. iPod won simply because it is sleek and sexy.
Seeing how they dominated the MP3, Apple took a shot at making a phone. The reaction was terrific, and reception wasn’t just from Apple fanboys. Once again, Apple has revolutionized a market with one product. With its sleekness, touch screen, and 200 patents, the iPhone redefined inventive. And there’s no question it will sell more than the Wii, DS Lite or PS3 have—it’s priced the same as the PS3, yet no one complained about spending $600 for 8GB. It’s got a touch screen, and it senses your hands’ movement, yet no one screamed “Bloody Plagiarism”.
Apple sees that it could be successful even when their products are no longer simple and cheap. With that in mind, Apple will try to cross the “final frontier”—video games. Apple knows people love playing video games, and the Wii and Lite have proved the market is bigger than it seems.
People are most comfortable purchasing things online; take a look at Amazon, XBL Marketplace, eBay, and of course, iTunes. In fact, the download sites like iTunes was one of the things that pushed the CD off its throne.
Apple already has a ton of retro games available online for the iPod using the Click Wheel. But with the iPhone, Apple will take a bold new step. Apple’s touch screen, internet, camera, and motion sensing will make it the king of portable gaming. One might be skeptical about the games that would be made for the iPhone, considering Apple’s previous lineups were weak, but fear not. By the time there will be enough Gigabytes to hold several full-length games on the iPhone, iGames will fly into the market of portable gaming, and will change on the industry forever.
For one thing, it will make all DVD, UMD, etc. formats obselete. By next generation, all companies will have adopted to iGames' style of direct-downloading full length games.
Sony’s innovation was the PSP, portable gaming with a bit of multimedia on the side. Nintendo’s innovation was the Wii—its gyroscopic controller was a real attention-grabber. Microsoft’s innovation was Xbox Live—playing and having fun with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
But these are small potatoes compared to what iGames will bring. iGames will roll it all into one. Using the gyroscope, you’ll hold iPhone like a small steering wheel. Its screen can serve as the visual aid, presenting the view of a race course from the perspective of the racer. You’ll be “racing your iPhone” against some pen pal of yours in India.
And this is just one example of a potential iGame. The possibilities are endless.
In conclusion, iGames may not exist yet, but knowing the success of Apple products, and knowing the features of the iPhone, one can be sure it will make its show stopping premier quite soon. If not this year, then perhaps next year; when Apple releases an iPhone with sufficient memory, be sure to look out for iGames.