Official iPhone Games in the Works?

[MacRumors]

NYPost.com writes what appears to be a mostly speculative piece about the possibility of games in the Apple iPhone.

Not much new information is provided, but in the past, there had been reports that Apple was courting game developers for the iPhone.

Specifically, Electronic Arts' mobile division had been quoted as saying that they had been talking to Apple about games on the iPhone. Electronic Arts would be a natural fit as they are already amongst the few developers who have been releasing new games for the iPod.

Meanwhile, independent development efforts continue on the iPhone with unofficial applications popping up daily. An NES emulator and non-playable port of Doom have been released for the iPhone. Due to the procedure required to install these applications onto your iPhone, these applications remain available only to interested hobbyists rather than the general public.

Article Link

[roundobi]

Its about time, the whole fuctionality is there. The gaming possibilities are so open. I dont know how easy it will be though, on the camera app I always accidentally press the camera button until i found i could hold it, then it takes when you release.

[Porshuh944turbo]

I'm just waiting for iPhone NES to get better and more usable!

[mainstreetmark]

I'll never understand the philosophy of allowing only certain companies to develop games for these 'i' devices.

[diamond.g]

Originally Posted by mainstreetmark

I'll never understand the philosophy of allowing only certain companies to develop games for these 'i' devices.

More control. Just like how only certain companies can make games for consoles.

[jwa276]

I really hope this is true. I'm dying to have some new fully supported functionality for my iPhone! It's very exciting to see how people's individual efforts for hacking have been going, but for me it really comes down to what is supported.

I would only consider doing a hack to the iPhone if someday I could get my TomTom Bluetooth GPS receiver to work with google maps (wishful thinking, I know). Then, and only then, would I be willing to give up syncing with iTunes.

[alywa]

It seems like a forgone conclusion that there will, eventually, be games for the iPhone. Apple is a smart company... they will make sure the games are good, stable, and profitable. I imagine the same thing is true with ringtones.

I predict a fall release when OS 1.1 is released (purely wild speculation).

[mainstreetmark]

Originally Posted by diamond.g

More control. Just like how only certain companies can make games for consoles.

Allowing anyone to write apps for the Apple, Mac, PC, etc, is what made them what they are today.

But, I suppose you all agree with that.

[fixyourthinking]

I've been playing the iPhone Duck Hunt

It's very cool and requires that you just visit the URL:

http://orangeburgyoungprofessionals.com/duckhunt/

I think it's even fun to play on the mac using the mouse

[A Pittarelli]

when the nes emulator is fully working it should be awe3some

[yetanotherdave]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

Specifically, Electronic Arts' mobile division had been quoted as saying that they had been talking to Apple about games on the iPhone. Electronic Arts would be a natural fit as they are already amongst the few developers who have been releasing new games for the iPod.

Article Link

Lets just hope they don't make promises then abandon them without any recognition whatsoever ie. games on the mac promised as WWDC

[filmgirl]

Originally Posted by diamond.g

More control. Just like how only certain companies can make games for consoles.

Well, sort of. It's only done that way in the video game industry because Nintendo didn't want Atari to make games for their systems (because Atari was doing their own versions of games that Nintendo was releasing in house, like Tetris - hence, Tengen Tetris for NES is worth a small fortune) - so they started the whole "officially licensed" thing and required game manufacturers to pay for a license/dev kit to be able to make games for their systems. I think the court case between Atari and Nintendo that went on for 8 or 9 years ended with Nintendo agreeing to let Atari become a licensed third party (though I don't think they ever did release an officially licensed game for any Nintendo system until Atari's name was essentially purchased by a different game company - the 3-DO guy maybe - too long ago - so even then, Atari game in name only) and Atari agreeing to pay whatever royalties you have to pay as a licensed game company.

Because Nintendo did what they did in 1985, Sega, NEC, Atari themselves (in a hilarious bit of irony - though the Jaguar fiasco was post lawsuit I think) and of course Sony and now Microsoft adopted the same policy. That doesn't mean that unofficial homebrew games can't be created/sold - but your market is going to be miniscule (I had some awful Wisdom Tree Bible game for the NES when I was little - it sucked and almost broke my system, but other than Tengen Baseball, it's the only unofficial commercial game I've ever had) and most retailers won't carry you. That's completely different from the PC gaming world where anyone can make a game. Of course, when you are talking about a system that is designed to run each and every game without hassle (unlike a PC that can have any number of configurations), the argument for quality control can be and should be made - bringing me to my point...

while I agree that the PC (and I mean PC in the global sense - not just Windows - Mac too) is what it is because of the structure that allows anyone to develop for any platform, when you have a device like a video game console, an iPod or an iPhone - having a process by which you can require company's to be licensed before the software/game is officially endorsed makes 100% sense. There is an expectation with a video game (and that's the model that it would make sense for iPhone to adopt because the hardware and OS are standardized the same way a video game system is standardized) that it will just work - the consumer doesn't have to deal with buggy software loader issue or sound problems or freeze-ups. The game should just play. To ensure that that can happen, Apple has to keep some sort of control over what commercial apps can be released for their platform, or at least - released with their approval that it will work.

That doesn't mean homebrew apps and open source stuff can't continue to come along and work great - but the average consumer isn't going to want to bother with having to hack their iPhone to play a game - they want to download it and have it work.

Still, this is good, if not unexpected news. I have a friend who works for the mobile division at EA - I'll try to get her to give me any word on anything they are preparing.

[chr1s60]

If EA is going to release games for iPhone that is pretty cool. I do see two possible negatives though. First off, EA usually does pretty detailed games so there is a good chance that any game they release for iPhone will take up quite a bit of storage. The second negative could be the price. EA charges $50 for computer or video games. I am sure iPhone games would be much cheaper than that, but he price would likely be more expensive than the $5 price tag for many of the iPod games. The price tag will be even more expensive if they release versions of their sports games because of the licensing. I am interested to see what happens with this.

[BornAgainMac]

EA, please make C&C 3 for the iPhone. Then make an announcment next year that you will release tha games in July.

[David G.]

Lets say that the next iPod runs pretty much the same downgraded OS that is on the iPhone. Is there any chance that if this is true, the games will work on both the iPhone and the iPod?

[pohl]

Originally Posted by diamond.g

More control. Just like how only certain companies can make games for consoles.

Another hypothesis: they want to start with a limited set of partners until they know they've arrived at a good API they can give to everybody else. API design is hard in the first place, but an API for an entirely new kind of device and user interface doubly so, at least.

[bigbossbmb]

Originally Posted by David G.

Lets say that the next iPod runs pretty much the same downgraded OS that is on the iPhone. Is there any chance that if this is true, the games will work on both the iPhone and the iPod?

I would say that is a definite possibility. It makes sense. It is the "If the iPod gets..." that's the unknown. and that is a big IF.

[alec]

Pong, Tiger Woods Golf, Madden, and Super Mario 3???

[Mudo]

Oh, like nobody saw that one coming.

[DopestGingah]

As long as they make some games better than that web based Duck Hunt, I will be more than happy!

[diamond.g]

Originally Posted by pohl

Another hypothesis: they want to start with a limited set of partners so they can charge more

Fixed.

[washer]

did EA ever say anything more about C&C and all of those games they promised? whats the deal? and id too right?

[Doctor Q]

Didn't Apple claim that providing Flash support would make too much processing demand on the iPhone? So why would games be OK but Flash not OK?

[SPUY767]

Originally Posted by diamond.g

More control. Just like how only certain companies can make games for consoles.

For console makers, it has nothing to do with control. It's about who is willing to pay the exorbitant console licensing fees. Remember, the iPhone makes money for Apple, something the console makers only dream of. Besides, if it was about control, I don't think that they would have allowed some of the games I've seen. Apple, on the other hand, needs to control tightly the code that goes on their phone, lest some error frought code brings down the network. People who hack their own games on to the iPhone, understand the risk and are not going to blame Apple when their phone has to be reset.

Originally Posted by Doctor Q

Didn't Apple claim that providing Flash support would make too much processing demand on the iPhone? So why would games be OK but Flash not OK?

Because flash brings my laptop to its knees, and my laptop has a 1.86 Core Duo. The difference is really astounding, flash isn't multi threaded, thank god, and sometimes, when I've got a flash heavy website up, the flash handler can take 30-40% of the available processor time.

[twoodcc]

i hope this is true. looking forward to iPhone games