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Hawkins: iPhone 'Freaking Out' Sony, Nintendo
by Kris Graft [PC, Console/PC]
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April 15, 2009
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With the iPhone and iPod Touch's gaming initiative going full steam ahead, long-standing hardware makers Sony and Nintendo have reason to be nervous about competition from Apple. So says Trip Hawkins, industry vet and founder of mobile gaming firm Digital Chocolate.
"Between the iPod Touch and the iPhone, I think the platform is freaking out Sony and Nintendo," he told Venture Beat.
Hawkins suggests it's the iPhone's rapid penetration that threatens Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP handhelds. "Apple has sold 30 million units so far and it has created tremendous awareness."
"It has taken ground all over the world. But it has only penetrated one half of one percent of its total market."
At last count, Nintendo said the DS shipped 100 million units, while Sony's PSP has sold 50 million. A developer for mobile devices, Digital Chocolate does not make games for either platform.
Hawkins says Digital Chocolate was relatively slow to get on board with the iPhone, but now it's his company's main focus. "It’s by far our most effective platform," he says. "We make as much money with these games on one device as we do putting a game on 100 different cell phone platforms."
Digital Chocolate's games have found substantial success on the iPhone. According to Hawkins, games like Crazy Penguin Catapult, Tower Bloxx and Brick Breaker Revolution have all managed to reach number one on the iPhone's digital App Store at various points, beating out tens of thousands of paid and free gaming and non-gaming apps.
Analysts at Mobclix say there are currently nearly 8,000 gaming apps on the App Store.
To rise above the clutter of apps and reach number one with paid-for games is "a mathematical freak," says Hawkins.
Hawkins, who also founded Electronic Arts, added, "[The iPhone] reminds me of the Sega Genesis, when EA finally had a platform that could keep up with the games we wanted to make."
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And then Trip Hawkins thought it was a wise idea to create his own plattform, the 3DO
@Christian Keichel, the 3do was incredible. Some of the best looking, and playing games ever. I am very grateful for my time with the 3do.
Just buy a macbook or iMac, pay your 100$ to be an iPhone developper and voilà. You have xcode, the iPhone sdk and your set to go. You don't need to find a publisher (it's Apple) or distribution channels and you get 70% (if i remember correctly) of sales no quota needed.
It is very and i mean VERY interesting from a developer's point of view. Kudos to Apple.
Why is it that the only pieces we get about the iPhone are totally self-interested ?! When it's not Trip Hawkins with Digital Chocolate, it's Neil Young with ngmoco, 2 guys who have accumulated failure after failure in the recent years (down to the point of being relegated to mobile, no matter how they'll try to spin it).
Can someone with true objectivity give us an analysis ? I guarantee you the picture would not be as rosy as those guys portray it (this coming from a guy who was at the biggest mobile dev/pub for more than 4 years).
Last time I checked, the Nintendo Seal of Quality wasn't a seal gameplay quality, but simply a seal to display that the title/cart/packing was correctly tested to meet quality assurance purposes. Of course, ask them back then when it was most important, and they would say all of the seal branded games were top-notch titles.
Right NOW though, it's another story. Since Nintendo focuses solely on their technical requirements when testing (as opposed to MS and Sony who also actually check the game content), they (Nintendo) are bringing the shovelware dumping upon themselves in a way. Because developers know that as long as they meet the tech requirements, the game can be pure garbage.
But anyways, I digress...