GamerNode: News - Analyst: iPhone not hardcore enough

Analyst: iPhone not hardcore enough

Category: Industry, Posted: 03/20/2008 at 01:17PM EDT by Creighton DeSimone, Contributor

two cents Am I the only one that hates Michael Patcher? Every time he speaks I get distracted by something shiny and don't pay attention. Most recently he makes the claim that the iPhone is not commercially viable as portable gaming device.

While I did make almost the opposite claim, that's not the reason why I hate him. Patcher is far too vague and doesn't take any chances. Of course the iPhone is not viable as a gaming device, it's not a strict gaming device. It's a phone more than anything else, hence the name.

"I don't see it as a viable gaming platform, due to the cost of owning one. The iPhone costs $400 plus an AT&T wireless subscription for voice and data, I'm guessing this is $80 a month, so the addressable market doesn't really fit the core gamer demographic. To the extent that hip, rich people are an interesting gaming audience, iPhone games will work. My guess is that this group is only interested in the most rudimentary games, and that the market will be small."

Rich people who play cell phone games are more interested in Bejeweled than Mass Effect. No kidding. My eight year old cousin could have told you that. Tell me something new Michael. Predict something that will make my face explode.

He says games on the iPhone are not going to appeal to "teh hardc0rez." Most portable games don't, and certainly no cell phone games do. The idea behind portable gaming is that you are doing it in small chunks. Forty minutes on the subway, half an hour during lunch, twenty minutes in the doctor's office. Not an incredibly long amount of continuous time.

If you're going to invest a substantial amount of consecutive time into a game you have your consoles or PC. I don't want to stare at a 3inch screen for 60 hours of Legend of Zelda, that's why I have a television.

I disagree with his claim that the market will be small. Don't underestimate the power of innovation. The iPhone gives developers a chance to open up creatively and make games they never had the chance to before. Will there be a ton of crappy ‘casual' games. Sure. But there will also be loads of fresh new games, and with a 70/30 split on profits more developers are going to look Apple's way.