Apple, The Great Casual Platform?

Apple’s iPhone and iPod platforms have been great stages for launching some hot casual game titles. Besides the slick sexy look the platforms play games well, have great user interface features and, as developers are concerned, offer great support and turn around speeds.

While Nintendo and Sony own a lot of the market in terms of hand-held devices, Apple is growing in the space and offer developers an easier time getting their titles to market. Ironic considering Apple has never been a huge gaming platform for their primary computer architectures.

Although Apple is the upcoming shining star in this area, it’s important to remember they’re the underdog. It’s often in the best interest of the “little guy” to kiss up to developers and make their migration to the platform as easy as possible. Once Apple becomes the top dog in the industry, will they forget the “little guys” that made their platform so great and become just another big company in the mobile game space?

Hopefully Apple won’t forget about those developers that are making their platform great by turning their back on them once they’ve become a market leader. We don’t need another Montreal Screwjob.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Nintendo DSi – New Features, Same LookNintendo DSi – New Features, Same Look

Nintendo finally came out and announced the Nintendo DS redesign, called the DSi. This product will have an SD memory slot, a 3.25 inch screen (bigger than the last) and a 3 megapixel camera.  The DSi is 12% smaller than the DS Lite and will have a matted gray and regular white finish; no colors upon launch it seems.

Conveniently the DSi has an SD slot for saving photos from the 3 megapixel camera so that you can transfer them to the Wii and use their Photo Channel. The Wii already has an SD card slot so now both devices can work together via the sneaker net.

The DS redesign looks much like the typical DS in looks and layout, a bit sad in my opinion. I was hoping for something a bit more “sexy” and awesome – the Apple way of doing things. Alas, nobody has a design team like Apple so we’ve got what we’ve got and that’s the DSi.

How did the alter the networking? They’ve created a store system much like that of the Wii and will be renaming Wii Points to Nintendo Points to show its more generic versitile nature to the new DSi hardware. You’ll be able to download games to an SD card making the portable device more acceptable to storage size increases, unlike the standard DS hardware.

Nintendo never really mentioned the MP3 concept, using the “audio” more for crazy reasons such as slowing down the speed or increasing it, which may suggest it as another tool for language learning tools.

Any takers? SD card slot is a nice addition and a little more integration with downloadable content would be well accepted by all communities and cultures.

(Thanks, 1up; Image via Kotaku)

PopCap: Casual Gaming in AsiaPopCap: Casual Gaming in Asia

PopCap will try their luck in the Asian market for casual games. The US market and the Asian market are clearly different and have different likes and dislikes when it comes to video games, this can be seen in the division between the US first-person-shooter genre running wild and the success of FPS franchises in Japan (a great example being the Xbox 360 console).

Many eastern style games have a casual feel to them and PopCaps going to see how they’re feeling about titles like Zuma, Chuzzle, Peggle and Bejeweled. James Gwertzman, their new Asia/Pacific VP says, “This is the opportunity of a lifetime.” He believes success will be the result of this endevor.

What do you think, Asia/Pacific, ready for US casual games?

(more…)

Episode 508: MarriageEpisode 508: Marriage

TJ announces his nuptials the previous week, finally marrying his live-in girlfriend of 10 years. All that, and many parables that had to be cut from the podcast lest it last 90 minutes.

That said, there’s plenty of news this week:

Let us know if you spent $50,000 on a virtual spaceship.