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Apple to Track iPhone Gaming High Scores?

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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With on-stage demos of EA's Spore and Sega's Super Monkey Ball (demo video) at their iPhone Software Development Kit event, Apple seems to be serious about mobile gaming on the iPhone. Earlier reports also hinted at this commitment with Apple previously extending their trademark to include handheld gaming devices.

Now, a look back at an Apple patent application entitled "Media management system for management of games acquired from a media server" reveals an interesting possibility for iPhone gaming.

While the bulk of the patent details the downloading and syncing of games between iTunes and iPhones/iPods, Apple proposes extending this functionality even further. Apple describes a method for transmitting iPhone/iPod high scores and other achievements to a central community game server:
"The media purchase system can also be utilized to facilitate a community of game players. These game players acquire games via a client device and media management application, and then play the games on portable electronic devices. The game play data, including game performance data for specific games, can be transfered from the portable electronic devices to the client devices. The client devices can then transfer such game play data over the data network to a game community server. For example, the game performance data can pertain to a high score that a user achieved while playing the game on the portable electronic device."
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By compiling high score data, players can compete amongst each other for prizes. All data can be digitally signed so that scores are authenticated.

Besides EA and Sega, Gameloft has committed to 15 game titles for release on the iPhone in 2008. Meanwhile, iPodHacks reveals the iPhone's hardware compares favorably to the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS gaming devices.

Article Link
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/03/11/apple-to-track-iphone-gaming-high-scores/
I dont think they would want to manage all of that data. Plus, I know iPhones are cool and everything, but I see gaming as more of a novelty on them.
 
kids

I was wondering when my 6 year old would hit me up for an iPod. Once he sees Spore his PSP will be forgotten.
 
nomar383 said:
I dont think they would want to manage all of that data. Plus, I know iPhones are cool and everything, but I see gaming as more of a novelty on them.
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Every story regarding this so far as well as the SDK event itself has shown that Apple is taking gaming seriously (finally)... this will NOT be a novelty thing for them.

Did you actually see the SDK event? Two of the five companies that demoed what they were able to do with the SDK in two weeks were big gaming companies (EA and Sega.) Sounds more than a novelty to me...
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I don't really know what to think about this. I'm not really into having games on my iPhone but it seems like it would be fun for those who are really wanting games on it. I will say that the game demos were pretty impressive at the SDK event even though they are just not something I am looking for.
 
Doesn't seem very Apple-like to track mobile game high score data. Why would they do this? Is this some sort of high score ASP model? weird.
 
I think Apple keeps track of a lot of stuff. My name wont be on their high scorer's list although I'll probably manage to buy a game or two or three.
 
genshi said:
Every story regarding this so far as well as the SDK event itself has shown that Apple is taking gaming seriously (finally)... this will NOT be a novelty thing for them.

Did you actually see the SDK event? Two of the five companies that demoed what they were able to do with the SDK in two weeks were big gaming companies (EA and Sega.) Sounds more than a novelty to me...
Click to expand...

I understand they are *trying* to take it seriously, but I just don't see people sitting down and playing a game on their iphone for hours on ends, thats all
 
nomar383 said:
I understand they are *trying* to take it seriously, but I just don't see people sitting down and playing a game on their iphone for hours on ends, thats all
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Casual gaming is a huge market. Lots of people have cell phones. Lots of people have time to kill (on subway, etc...).

http://www.metrics2.com/blog/2007/01/04/mobilephone_gaming_market_to_grow_at_272_annual_cl.html

As wireless handsets continue to gain computing power, the number of mobile-gaming users worldwide will increase threefold during the next five years, reaching 134 million average users a month by 2010, up from 38 million average users in 2005, according to iSuppli.
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arn
 
arn said:
Casual gaming is a huge market. Lots of people have cell phones. Lots of people have time to kill (on subway, etc...).

arn
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Point taken

Then again, how many "casual gamers" care about what their high score is compared to someone else's? That was my point
 
Starting in June, Apple is poised to take a huge chunk of the mobile gaming market. Not with the iPhone though, with the iPod touch.

Count on the touch becoming a major player in the mobile gaming world very quickly.
 
nomar383 said:
I understand they are *trying* to take it seriously, but I just don't see people sitting down and playing a game on their iphone for hours on ends, thats all
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Why not, people do on the DS and the PSP? I think this will become huge for the iPod Touch. It looks like it can match (if not exceed) the gaming capacities of both other portable systems. Another huge benefit is that we do not have to carry the games around with us, they are stored on the system itself. Now I am just waiting for them to turn the AppleTV into a console and let the iPhone/iPod Touch become the controller.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

arn said:
nomar383 said:
I understand they are *trying* to take it seriously, but I just don't see people sitting down and playing a game on their iphone for hours on ends, thats all
Click to expand...





Casual gaming is a huge market. Lots of people have cell phones. Lots of people have time to kill (on subway, etc...).





http://www.metrics2.com/blog/2007/01/04/mobilephone_gaming_market_to_grow_at_272_annual_cl.html





As wireless handsets continue to gain computing power, the number of mobile-gaming users worldwide will increase threefold during the next five years, reaching 134 million average users a month by 2010, up from 38 million average users in 2005, according to iSuppli.
Click to expand...








arn
Click to expand...

That is a good point Arn and I completely agree. Though this is a little off topic but still relavent, I wonder how power hungry games like Spore or Super Monkey Ball are and if any of this the necessary elements to store and track these high scores are going to have an effect on battery life as well.
 
arn said:
Casual gaming is a huge market. Lots of people have cell phones. Lots of people have time to kill (on subway, etc...).
arn
Click to expand...

Nail on the head.

That said, this sounds like Xbox Live light. I would have been very surprised if they DIDN'T do this -- it would have been a huge missed opportunity on their part considering how important Live has been to making Xbox a household name.
 
I don't know if the high score thing is such a good idea since the iPhone is so easily hacked. You can never tell if people actually played to get the score.
 
pflau said:
I don't know if the high score thing is such a good idea since the iPhone is so easily hacked. You can never tell if people actually played to get the score.
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they'd be digitally signed

kornyboy said:
That is a good point Arn and I completely agree. Though this is a little off topic but still relavent, I wonder how power hungry games like Spore or Super Monkey Ball are and if any of this the necessary elements to store and track these high scores are going to have an effect on battery life as well.
Click to expand...

the scores would be transmitted on sync via itunes

arn
 
Slashdot Story:

"Apple to restrict games on iPhone

Apple are definitely going to restrict game developers to using Apple's servers for game essentials such as High Scores and Achievements. Despite this only being seen in a patent filing, it's guaranteed to happen because Apple are the new evil, despite contributing lots of truly open source software each and every year to the community. This comes shortly after Apple banned Firefox from the iPhone, as well as Skype, Java and Opera."
 
Why would Apple turn away Skype? They already stated that the iPhone could use VoIP if it had WiFi? I don't buy that story.
 
Hattig said:
Slashdot Story:

"Apple to restrict games on iPhone

Apple are definitely going to restrict game developers to using Apple's servers for game essentials such as High Scores and Achievements. Despite this only being seen in a patent filing, it's guaranteed to happen because Apple are the new evil, despite contributing lots of truly open source software each and every year to the community. This comes shortly after Apple banned Firefox from the iPhone, as well as Skype, Java and Opera."
Click to expand...

mmmmmmm, got to love a heaping plate of spin! Bring on the games AND the game tracking Apple!
 
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