This week, Apple unveiled a new dual processor, handheld gaming platform with stereo surround sound and a bright, 30 frames per second color display. The company also announced that it created an instant installed base of players by secretly distributing millions of the new devices over the last year.
This brand new platform is the fifth generation iPod. With a simple software upgrade, it can now play a new generation of games Apple is selling in directly from iTunes. Its dual processors have simply been playing music and videos up to this point. Now they’re chomping at the bit to dive into games apparently. Who knew?
Is It Possible I Could Be Wrong?
Back in June I wrote The Apple Video Game Development Myth, where I explained why I didn't think Apple's job listings for games developers were related to rumors of a new game platform or a broad new gaming initiative for either the Mac or the iPod.
I compared Apple and the Mac with the PC Gaming market and dedicated game consoles, and concluded that the real reason Apple was hiring people with video gaming experience was that:
Experts in video games are also experts in dedicated graphics processors. Increasingly, everything Apple does on the Mac is related to Core Video and Core Image, the familiar graphics plugins represented with logos that look like a Pac Mac gagging on a translucent billiard ball. Both farm out processing tasks to the specialized processors found in graphics cards, just as video games do. Every Mac OS X window is displayed and layered using technologies borrowed from the video game world.
From Mac OS X's Exposé and Dashboard ripples, to Final Cut, Motion, Shake, Aperture, down to the effect filters in Photo Booth, Apple is making increasing use of Quartz to differentiate its platform and applications, and make it easier for its developers to put the same high performance graphic tools to use in new ways. Apple is hiring video game developers because of their expertise in OpenGL GPU development, not because of a secret video games initiative.
iPod Video Games? Pshaw!
I could somewhat weasel out of being wrong by saying that the iPod really isn't a new gaming platform, or that my comments were mostly correct, even if Apple has released an array of new iPod games by EA and Popcap.
However, any potential wiggle room is constrained by my other comments on the iPod and gaming:
As for the iPod, current models only play a few basic games. Apple has not developed any new iPod games, and apparently they don't want any to crop up. If Apple opened up the iPod's API, games would write themselves.
Would consumers buy or play iPod games? Given the iPod's hardware limitations, games would have about as much variety as the Atari 2600, where there was more action in the photo on the game's box than in the game, and many games were the same thing repackaged over again, simply displayed using different colored squares. Ah, simpler times.
Apple would have to dramatically morph the iPod into something more akin to the Sony PSP in order to make iPod games something worth playing outside of being stuck in a broken elevator. That would require far more than the hiring of a few game developers.
The New Games
Okay, so last year's iPod doesn't rival the PSP in game play, but the new games certainly rocket past the handful of bundled games Apple originally provided. Why didn't Apple open up a gaming API for the iPod and allow games to write themselves?
It's not hard to imagine that Apple probably wants to earn a cut on software designed to play on the iPod. Of course, at $4.99, there isn't a lot of money for Apple to grab.
The real reason for Apple holding up game development on the iPod over the last year is more likely related to the company trying to make sure that iPod games meet a certain quality level. It doesn't want potential players to think their iPod is useless at playing games, simply due to a bad experience with a poorly designed game.
Remember that the real reason that many games for the Atari 2600 were lame was because there was no quality control. Developers, blinded by easy game profits, simply dumped out a series of trash games that ended up glutting the market.
1000 Games, In Your Pocket
I tried to capture the absurdity of using the iPod as a gaming platform by depicting two of the most unlikely games on the iPod screen: Tony Hawk and World of Warcraft. I'm not sure if anyone else thought it was funny; on the Internet, nobody can hear you laugh.
While Blizzard's WOW is currently the reigning killer of the world's productivity, back in the 80's we had fast paced arcade games to do that. Colorful, loud, and addictive, arcade video games were cheap to try, and competition for kids' quarters demanded that games had to be fast and fun.
Today, games are expensive. Typical titles for game consoles or PC titles are in the ballpark of $50. Will Apple be able to redevelop a market for simple, addictive game play?
At $4.99, Apple's new iPod games are pretty cheap entertainment, but are they worth playing outside of a broken elevator? I'll take a look at the playability and entertainment value of Apple's iPod game titles, up next.
Next Articles:
This Series
| | Comment Preview
Read more about:
Send |
Subscribe |
Del.icio.us |
Digg |
Furl |
Reddit |
Technorati
Click one of the links above to display related articles on this page.
Apple's New Dual Processor Game Console
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Ad
