Just let Cell Phone Gaming pass on already. At most a few casual games. Cell Phone games will never have any depth at the moment. Mabye in another decade or so.

Jac21

While I do hope a great future for iPhone gaming (needs moar external controlers), the comparison is far from fair.

First of all, both portables were released quite some time ago.
Second: On both portables, the system is dedicated to gaming only... on iPhone, it isn't.
While this is not as bad as having a complete OS to deal with (like PCs running emulators), it still doesn't make a fair comparison.

Last but not least, this will all depend on Apple's capabilities to attract more gaming companies to develop to the iPhone. An open platform is good, but great games will come only with closed deals.
Nice start with Super Monkey Ball and Spore though.

But you know, consoles are not about their spec-sheet... they are all about GAMES. DS has Nintendo behind it, and PSP has Sony behind it.
iPhone has Apple behind it. While this is not completely bad, Apple isn't exactly famous for developing and releasing great games...

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

He forgot one thing, it doesn't have BUTTONS or an ANALOG STICK so it SUCKS for GAMING.

Soldrak

The specs mean fuck... It's about the company behind it's capability to make games and attract third parties... Apple have proven that they don't have a fucking clue about that.

Sony and Ninty will always kick their sorry asses

syl1985

Games will kill iPhones faster than they already are. Games will make iPhones consoles since they'll need to be on Juice constantly just to Play.

Plan303e

lets just say that if the iphone starts pumping out some great games that get rave reviews... and some of them.. i REALLY want... i'll definitely be more likely to get one.

joelface

As a primarily portable gamer (95% of my gaming is with the DS and PSP, most of the time I am at home) I would be lying if I said that I wasn't interested, but there are way more things going against the iPhone than there are in favor of it. One thing that most people have not mentioned is that despite the fact that the DS has a touch screen, very few games are ideal for it. Phantom Hourglass was usable with the touch screen, but it would have been much better if you could have just used the d-pad for walking and fighting. There are a lot of games that are great with the touch screen, such as Puzzle Quest and Meteos, but overall it is overused.

Also, it doesn't matter how large the install base of the iPhone becomes because most people are buying it as a combo of an iPod and a phone. My PC can play games, but the only games I play on it are Spider Solitaire and ROM CHECK FAIL. The PC for me is primarily for web surfing, email, video editing, and word processing. That is not out of the ordinary because most people are not using their PCs for gaming.

The PSP and the DS are complementary gaming devices; generally if a game is multiplatform, it is substantially better on one or the other. But I don't see how the iPhone really fits into this, other than being a decent cell phone gaming device. $300 is too much for a portable device that is not primarily about gaming and $100 a month with AT&T coverage (awful) is terrible. This isn't even including the fact that it will be all digital downloads, which is fine for cell gaming, but not for regular games. No matter what the processing power is, I would need some major convincing to take it seriously as a handheld device.

kingofallcosmos

Oh forgot to add, the iPhone has NO CONTROLS which makes it very diffucult to game. Touchscreen aside, you cant really do much beyond a few novel games without at least some buttons. Even the DS couldnt pull it off with just a touch screen. Most of the time the touch screen replaces the dpad input, but the buttons are usually still used for something.

Most I can see them getting away with is stuff like Phoenix Wright, and a few other types of games.

Altima NEO

Crazy killer midgets make everything better.

...Seriously, the iPhone isn't going to become the next big gaming platform. Nowhere NEAR as big as the DS or even the PSP. More like... the NGage.

blackadvent

iPhone has a 3d accelerator?? Holy shit. Why dont most (low end) macs have something better than that integrated intel crap?

Altima NEO

I think alot of this depends on whether the iPod touch has game capabilities. The iPhones is CAPABLE of playing games but I expect much more gimicky titles.

SaanZ

@DigitalHero: Yeah, Ninja Gaiden DS and Advance Wars: DOR, those are certainly among my favorite "kiddie" games. That and Contra 4.

DaiMacculate

@KM91:
"DS has the best kids games. Automatic loss." *FIXED!

DigitalHero

This is kind of a silly way to look at it. With the iPhone you'll never get that full amount of processing because there's going to be a lot of overhead in the form of background applications and the operating system itself.

With the PSP and DS you'll get a lot more of that processing power for your application. They were both architected with graphics performance in mind as well, which may not be the case with the iPhone.

The Wreckard

iPhone sucks, because AT&T does not have any towers up in my area. It's all the mega-bastards at Verizon.

SSJPabs

I don't think iPhone will have games that compete with dedicated handheld game systems, but it'll raise the bar for mobile phone games. They're different beasts really. DS/PSP are for gamers who want to take their games on the go, cell phone games are just a little extra thing to do when you're waiting in line at Starbucks.

LeChuck

First off, I have to admit that whoever wrote that article at rough draft either omitted or was not aware of the huge fact that the PSP has dedicated video RAM, while the iphone basically has integrated graphics. Just a simple glance at their respective spec sheets and you would see that the PSP has about 10x the potential poly count as the iphone, and about 2x the potential fill rate as the iphone.

That said, this IN NO WAY means that the iphone can't be a good gaming device. Didn't we have this discussion already? Remember, when the DS came out? And isn't the iphone far, far more powerful than the DS?

There are four legitimate reasons why the iphone will have trouble as a gaming device: cost; software compatibility across iphone models; dev support; and consumer interest/awareness. That's it. They should be self explanatory. Let's look at some false reasons and see exactly why they are false:

1) No library.

I read this and almost laughed. By that logic, no device would ever succeed. All devices start at zero.

2) iphone wasn't designed for gaming.

... so? A lot of things weren't designed for a lot of things, that doesn't mean they aren't still great at it. The mouse wasn't designed to play FPS, or control an RTS, but it is still great at both. Everyone always talks as if there is some special alchemic blend that console manufacturers use to make their device good at gaming. Oh, and if it mixed with a phone, the blend combusts and destroys a city block. The fact is that you don't design a device for gaming so much as you design a game for a device. As long as it has a powerful control scheme (like a mouse, or say... multi-touch+accelerometers?) then games can be designed for it. In reality there are very very few genres unworkable on the iphone. Far fewer than D-pad and buttons actually.

3) Can't play traditional (proper) games.

Actually yes it can. Unless you mean specific classic games that were designed for buttons, in which case you would be right. But that's not a problem. DS can't do god of war, but it still has the excellent beat-em-up Dragon sword. The PC can't do Zack and Wiki, yet somehow it is the place to be for adventure games. A gaming device's potential isn't measured in the legacy games it can play, but in the variety of genres that can be made to work under it. And here the iphone excels. In fact, not being able to play legacy games well is one of the best thing going for the iphone's gaming market. Look at the PSP. It's control scheme is completely compatible with the majority of legacy games, and it has suffered greatly because of it. Most people I know use their PSP as an emulator first, media player second, PSP third. That's why the PSP rarely has any games break the top 50. Not being able to play legacy games well may actually boost sales of original titles.

labrats5

@mariospants: PSP is a gaming system first and foremost? Really? Coulda fooled me, with it's AMAZING selection of games. :P... just kidding.

DS is the best of the 3, as it has so many great titles already out for it, with undoubtedly more on the way... While PSP gets 1-2 games a year that make me consider getting a PSP.... and Iphone just doesn't have that many games yet, but I haven't played any of the ones that would really take advantage of the touch screen yet... Regardless, Iphone would need to make up for a lot of great games the DS already has to surpass the DS's greatness.

RemyDuvalle

What war?, it should be called "The reign of the DS", psp is selling more now because a couple FF and god of war and a lot od ds shortages...

TOCATL

On price: yes, it's more expensive, but the iPod Touch is an iPhone withouth the phone, only $299.

On specs: the CPU is a more advanced version of what's in the DS, AND it runs 6 times faster (yes, it is directly comparable, because they are both ARM chips). It has hardware sound decoding (DS does not). Its 3D chip is more powerful than the DS'. Thus, this thing is WAY more powerful than the DS for 3D gaming. Its RAM is 128MB versus 4 - even if the iPhone OS takes up a full half of that, you still have 16 times the RAM in an iPhone.

On lack of controls: OK, lack of d-pad and buttons kinda sucks. But it isn't as bad as a lot of you are saying. First off, look at DS: there's a freakin' 3D Ninja Gaiden game, only uses buttons for ONE thing: blocking! The rest of the game is touchscreen only. There's also a Zelda game that can be played primarily with touchscreen. Those are "real" games. Second, the iPhone/iPod Touch has tilt control and a multitouch screen - this means games could use combinations like lightly tilt the screen in the direction you want to move, touch the left side of the screen (with your left thumb) for button 1, right side of the screen (with your right thumb) for button 2. There are many workable possibilities, you just have to think outside the box.

On ease of programming: The iPhone SDK is actually pretty darn easy to program for, and for 3D it uses OpenGL, a standard 3D library used all the times for PC games. The DS at least has the advantage for easy to program 2D games, but 3D, the iPhone will be easier.

On game pricing: Both the DS and PSP have to have physical cartridges and discs manufactured for their games (plus boxes and instructions). This costs money and takes time. Those games then have to be distributed to game stores, and the profits split with those stores. iPhone/iPod Touch, none of that. Just split one fee with Apple (which is similar to the licensing fees you have to pay to Nintendo and Sony for their games), and you're done.

Dreamwriter

A gajillion iPhones? Nintendo sold twice as many Nintendo DSs in Q4 2007 alone than Apple has sold iPhones total. There is no way that iPhone will come close to the DS user base in the DS's life span.

notalkjustrock

DS has the best games. Automatic win.

KM91

Red Alert iPhone please...

Or remake Marble Madness with 1000 levels.

kthxbye...

jpxdude

Let me throw some iphone hate onto the bbq: the thought of something like the DS or PSP - which are gaming systems first and foremost - adding new features such as video playback, internet telephony, gps, web browsing, etc. etc. fills me with glee. The thought of something like the iphone - which is an mp3-playing telephone first and foremost - adding new features such as playing video games fills me with the most utter dread and distaste. It's easy to take something that's designed to be fun and add functional features. It's another thing to take something function and add fun to it.

mariospants

I have to agree, you can't just compare the specs. After all, by specs alone, the DS and Wii should be dead.

However, factoring in some other things, I think the iPhone, and iPod Touch are going to be a major factor in the mobile games space. The older iPods that we know are going to eventually die, and all be replaced by iPod Touch like platforms as costs come down. That alone makes for a gigantic market.

Then there is the factor of what people carry with them all the time. Only really dedicated gamers carry a DS or PSP with them at all times. However, a crap ton of people carry their phone with them at all times, and to a lesser extent a lot carry a portable music player with them. I'm in that category. My iPhone is with me all the time, DS and PSP, not so much. If I'm bored, I'll soon be able to just pull my phone out and start playing handheld class games on the go, and not just typical crap cell phone games.

drakino

The PSP has a camera and mobile TV (although not sure about radio)

Also something else the PSP and the DS have is a D-Pad.

JayD16

The iPhone is definitely capable, but the other two have great first party franchises. And buttons. Poking and tilting can only go so far.

Wolfers

The juice of the PSP? Seriously. No fucking way. You can't just compare tech specs when dealing with this sort of thing.

TheEngineer: Rocking the Goggles

1. Game system
2. Pocket home theatre replacement
3. Phone/PMP/browser
2. Phone/PMP/browser too sometimes...

fuchikoma

@johnnywashngo: Everything is better ona a sofa with a glass of wine and plenty of time.

InsidiousTuna

I enjoy my PSP and DS more than an Iphone. At least i don't have to sign a contract with AT&T to play PSP or DS! =P

But i did pay in full for my DS and i got my psp used from a friend i traded him for a brand new copy of bioshock. (back in the day when that game was hard to get) But i use the DS for games and i use the PSP for Media, and those rare PSP titles, and ScummVM so iam much happier without a Iphone right now.

MURDERFACE

@Horseflesh: RTS might work.

SAKY

@brianwh: but then you wouldn't have a phone ;) and all the other features that the iphone provides.

Just saying for the sake of argument.

SAKY

Wait... 368×207 usable for video???
Oh my gosh! I have perverted PSP! She's capable of handling more than 480x272... let me see... about a year already %-). And it's AVC altogether... Nevertheless, 480x272 is my resolution of choice, period.

13xforever

@Agies: I'm making the assumption that higher quality DSPs would be available, you're right there is no point in adding high-def audio to the device without a hardware bump, hence me hoping for it in a future revision rather than some type of adapter for the current model ;)

DaiMacculate

@raptorsrevenge: What a cluster of useless analogies. I mean, the credibility seal descended with gusto when you ended with:

UMD = Failz.

Or not. Seriously, fanboy much?!

pylon_trooper

DS - Fun, quirky games I like to play while taking a dump.

PSP - Games I wish were on PSN or PS2 games (basically, games I want to play on my TV but the component out is just laughable)

iPhone - Don't have one, don't want one. I want to talk on my phone and that's it.

smitty1123

Cell phones are NOT for GAMING... AND SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE OF PEOPLE!!!

AcidFaux

Iphone = touch display and rotation/movement recognition. Which could be used to develop some cool games. (Will that happen, *shrugs*) If people take that approach, I think you could see some really cool games. The DS is King, and will always be sitting on it's throne waiving it's stylus at the populous. The PSP is just a hot girl you met at a bar, got into a relationship with, and a month later realized she's no more interesting than the pimple on your ass.

UMD = epic failz

raptorsrevenge

Good specs doesn't equal good gaming machine. The Iphone specs was more or less matched by the Dell Axim X50v 3 years ago: 624Mhz XScale, 16MB Intel 2700G graphic accelerator (PowerVR based), 64MB RAM, 640x480 resolution, WiFi, touchscreen. The games were visually nice, but the lack of proper gaming hardware made it suck as a gaming platform. Same problem with the Iphone. Expensive toy.

I will stick with my PSP, DS and a proper smartphone thank you.

JonC

@Agies: Of course that wouldn't work. Let me clarify. I want to play REMAKES of those old games done in the icon interaction style they introduced with King's Quest 5 (I believe). Remember when all the Sierra games changed to the icon things instead of typing? Wanna talk to someone? Click on 'em with the Talk icon.

Horseflesh

@Barts: Exactly. Before the iPhone, the same exact argument was made for the iPod for YEARS.
'But there's so many of them out there, surely they can take a chunk out of Gameboy's market share....'

Not exactly the case now, is it?

Sure they can sell a bunch of Pac-Man re-hashes and the like, but it will take some truly original and quality content to convince actual gamers that the iPhone can be compared to the PSP or DS. That is, without hacking it to play quality content from past systems ;-)

TKWarrior

My bet is that Apple is going to sell casual gaming titles that no Kotaku reader will give a damn about for 5$ each - and make a $hitload of money on it. :)

In January I have been trying to see what gaming options my jailbroken iPhone gives me :
[www.bartsnews.net]

Since then GBA emulator has been updated and SNES emulator appeared. There's a ton of user levels for iPhysics. So it's not too bad, all in all. When my PSP battery dies out during intercontinental flight, I have sme backup. :]

Barts

Sounds like a lot of turtle-neck sweaters went into the making of this rundown.

pylon_trooper

Who cares about PSP, DS and iPhones? Midget Brawl!!

WhiskeyJak

Maybe if the iPhone was selling well in any country other than the US...

brooza

Hmm, didn't realize that iPhone had some nice hardware for a little device.

kanashimaru

Man, 'throw' not 'through'. Sue me its early 8-p

TKWarrior

@Horseflesh: The iPhone sucks hard for the old Siera AGI games. You need to be able to type and see the screen at all times. Those games didn't pause as you typed and some of them required quick and timely input. King's Quest I even had a handfull of hotkeys for jumping, swimming etc.

@DaiMacculate: Unfortunately the DSPs Apple uses for their iPods aren't all that great. I'm not sure any DJ who cares about the music he's spinning would want to use an iPhone for it. Especially when a laptop provides more storage and features.

Agies

Hardware specs mean little if you can't take full advantage of them. And this isn't a 'wait a few years for developers to get used the hardware' statement. This is a 'those resources you want for your game will always be reserved for X' statement. Not knocking the iPhone, since this is the case for any mobile phone platform, including the PSPhone if it comes out. Just don't through those stats at me as a reason its a contender unless I can make my iPhone a dedicated gaming device.

Regardless, it's not a 'war' until all parties have some decent ammunition.

TKWarrior

Sure the PSP and DS are cheaper...

However, there are a few things to consider:

1) As has already been mentioned - the iPod Touch is also supported by the iPhone SDK and it's $299.
2) The games for the iPhone/Touch are likely to be *much* cheaper. Games for the current iPods are about $5 each. PSP and DS games are more like $20-$40.
3) The iPhone/Touch does a hell of a lot more than either the DS or the PSP.

Comicd

Doesn't the psp have 802.11g as of an update a while ago? Any who, the lack of buttons will doom the iPhone for games. They're maybe a couple that can utilize what the iPhone has and be great, but most games will be rubbish. Plus, the DS and PSP are sold as game systems, the iPhone's main selling point is a phone. So when its put that way, the people who go to buy an iphone go to buy a phone, not a game system. The people who go to buy a PSP and DS, they want a game system. The iPhone may have the guts, but I don't think it has what it takes.

drywaller79

For the price of an i-Phone, you can buy both DS and PSP and a brace of top of the line games.

brianwh

iPhone has an amazing distribution channel in iTunes. My bet is they sell a huge number of simple mobile games. I seriously doubt they want to directly compete with the DS or PSP...yet.

d510r9

The iPhone and iPod Touch will always be too expensive to break into the handheld gaming market in a big way.

iPod Touch: $300
PSP: $170
Nintendo DS: $130

Apple will need to half their prices and ensure a steady and consistent supply of games, which they've never shown any interest in doing. I will be very surprised if the iPhone/Touch ever manages to reach the market share of something like the N-gage, Gizmondo or even GP2X.

photoboy

Y'know, I wouldn't mind seeing some innovation.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

@nxp3: Its odd because I find that I play my PSP and DS more at home than away :)

Sure, I take it on the daily commute with me for a short blast of advance wars or whatever else I have handy, but I tend to find that playing games like Crystal Chronicles is nicer sat on the sofa with a glass of wine and plenty of time.

johnnywashngo

DS and psp are gaming machines and I don't own any of them. I don't know if I have time to play it. If I'm at home I'd rather play my ps3. I'm not away enough to need a portable gaming machine...though lately I've been very tempted to get a psp. I need more justification. As for the iphone, I wouldn't even consider that as a gaming platform. Without buttons, it can't be a gaming machine...not the kind of game that I want to play. Casual gamer might be able to play puzzle games on there..but there's no real game it can handle without dedicated buttons.

nxp3

The iPhone with it's rather ubitqutious Wireless and EDGE/US Equivalent data transfer is prime territory for creating an MMO if we hark back to the days of the N-Gage and Ragnarok Online. The game I most want to give an example of is the original SWG, where combat was by no means a necessity for people to play. Sure we've got Spore on the way, but that has little to no hope of capturing the raiding stat whoring demographic. A simplistic design with an intricate crafting system, click and toolbar combat and a highly customisable permanent avatar creates not only a game, but a social networking opportunity as well. And the recent rise of Myspace, Bebo, Facebook etc has proven that the teenage phone buying demographic really really love sending each other app notifications. Why not make it properly viable on a phone?

Of course until the iPhone appears on a PAYG call plan for us lonely nerds with no one to spend our umpteen hundred minutes and texts on and takes a massive price dip, I won't be joining in. My ageing Motorola Razr (yes, the original one) isn't getting replaced until absolutely necessary which is code for "It catches on fire or falls under a bus".

Mattz

@DaiMacculate: Forgot to mention, another thing a future iTouch device should/must have in my mind is some type of high-def audio in/out capability, whether its 1394/TosLink/whatever, the massive utility of that to sound production, DJs, etc would sell another million ;)

DaiMacculate

It is certainly proving to be the trojan horse I expected it to be.

Apple are never up front about exactly what it is they want from the hardware they produce. The iPhone was clearly a sly way of getting a multi purpose device into the pockets and handbags of the fashion conscious and those where amountInPounds>commonSense == true ;)

I don't think it will succeed as a games device simply because of the way that the user interacts with the hardware. A touchscreen alone will not suffice as a way to control games. Take Metroid on the DS for example, a fine game using the touchscreen to the best of its ability but having to also use old school buttons as well.

For most games, the imprecise nature of a touchscreen is not nearly accurate enough to be usable or provide a satisfactory gaming experience. You could argue that games such as cooking mama, loco roco or doki doki majo shinpan would work really well on the iPhone and I would agree. But I would imaging that anything more complicated would too much hard work given the lack of buttons.

Even though the hardware specs look impressive, I would assume that the OS gobbles up a lot of the processing power and memory before a game is even launched. That may be an issue to any developers out there who wish to use the full power of the system.

johnnywashngo

Not just the iPhone remember, there is the iTouch too. That's a lot cheaper.

will

@marlblank: I'm totally with you on the "apps more than games" argument for a device like this, as others have noted its not cheap, and if all you want is gaming and music and a phone this isn't the device for you. I'm more excited about the higher level apps we'll see from people like Adobe, MS' MacBU, and the host of small indie devs that will be looking at this SDK.

I loved my dad's Newton 2000, nice device for what it was at the time it came out, I'm still waiting to see if the iTouch platform (iPhone/iPod Touch) can evolve a little more in that direction over the next couple of revisions before I even think about dropping $300+ on one ;)

DaiMacculate

Although it mentioned that the iphone has a multi touch display, it failed to mention the ds has a pressure sensitive display. Also, battery life is a factor. Its a bit silly to use specs as a good guide to determine potential in the gaming industry, look at things like the game gear vs the gameboy - psp vs Ds - gba vs Neo Geo the list goes on.

I think that the iphone will sell many games because it has a large user base, but the games wont be as good because the device hasnt been designed for games properly. Sure it has a cool multi touch display and accelerometers which will no doubt allow for some really cool and interesting games - but in terms of traditional style portable games - it fails to have the physical requirements needed for proper gaming.

DUOPHONIX.com

Yet all three lose points for not opening up their platforms to homebrew developers. Out of the lot the easiest to do homebrew is the DS as at the moment as you can get a Supercard/R4 or whatever.

Otherwise you are into the world of hack firmware and I would never really recommend that to anyone. I don't count the up and coming iPhone apps in homebrew because it is not open to everyone and Apple seem to be randomly choosing partners for it.

cocomo

Sure PSP has no touchscreen and the DS has no camera, but they curiously left out the fact that the iPhone has no buttons for people to press.

hastyp

The question isn't about specs. The question is, "Do people buy this to play games on it?" In the case of the iPhone, I don't think so. First of all, it's more expensive than either the DS or the PSP, both of which have amassed a hella good library by now. Yes, the PSP, too, even without custom firmwares... Which aren't quite as big a hassle as you'd think: I haven't upgraded mine since, oh, this summer, and the only new PSP game I've had trouble getting to work is Ratchet & Clank (apparently, I have to set the clock speed manually for that).

For those who've already bought an iPhone for other purposes, I'm sure it's got plenty of potential for games. Those I've seen so far look pretty danged good. But very few are going to buy an iPhone to play Monkey Ball or Spore on it. And the lack of actual buttons on the thing makes it hard to do "proper" action games.

That said, I could see Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan work on the iPhone. Very well, in fact.

MrPerson

2 things.

My PSP has a camera on it.

People don't make Monster hunter, Crisis Core, God of War, Lumines, Flatout or Wipeout for Iphone. Case dismissed.

ryivanV2

The iphone specs are impressive. The post presents as the good bits of both ds and psp - i.e the brawn of the psp, with the interface of the ds.
Problems is, the ds still has buttons, a d-pad, and a form factor suited to games. The brawn is good, but the iphone has only one aspect of the games interface required.
The psp 2 may have a touch screen, but it will still
have buttons.

Wouldnt like to subject a large glass touch screen to the rigours applied to a d-pad in a driving game or a face button on an action title.

GMC

I don't want my music player to also be my phone. I DEFINITELY don't want my portable gaming device to also be my phone. I use my DS to pass the time on long plane rides, I don't want to worry about draining the batteries on my phone.

shadydentist

@DaiMacculate:
The only thing a laptop needs to run...Homeworld 2 :p

In all seriousness, I don't really like the concept of the iPhone in general, let alone the iPhone as a gaming device. Though there will spawn some interesting titles, it doesn't seem to be able to bring a breakthrough in mobile gaming in my opinion.

Sure, the specs may be there. But keep in mind that from the processor power, sensors and all extra bells and whistles in the phone a good deal goes to running the operating system, managing your agenda and running background processes.

This reminds me of android somewhere. They too have included opengl in their sdk, and you theoretically can develop nice looking games that play well. But if these games have place on a phone I'll leave in the middle.
I'd rather have that we develop more of the interesting 'normal' applications for phones. Applications that make it easier to stay 'connected'. Web2.0, rss - readers and that stuff.

It's a nice try, but overall I like my games on my handheld system.

marlblank

The iphone is as much of a gaming machine as the NGage was. Take that for what you will.

PooPooKaKaBumBum

gentlemen, behold... WIIPHONE!!!

+ Watch video

JakEastside v3

The fact that it costs more than both a DS and PSP together is a bit off-putting. I've heard from friends who own the iPhone that the actual service runs about $95 a month...but I suppose if you buy one, price isn't a primary factor.

I am still curious to see if iPhone gaming picks up, or if it gets left with a bunch of uglied yet portable PC/Mac games. We'll see.

Esplosion

Advanced Wars Iphone Advanced! It's a 10 million seller!

Scuba Steve

Is not my area of expertise, but the MIPS R4000 seems a hell of easy to program in assembler. And 32 MB is much more than 4MB.
This make the *me* the PSP a better platform to write for. Also 333 is way more than 67.
The sad thing, is that to use a PSP you have to hack it, or live under the Sony whatever policies put on the machine. Maybe even banning homebrew software.
There are very good console emulators, like Mame.
I admit I have never played a good Nintento Pokemon/JRPG game. The PSP with a nintento emulator to play one of these could be fun.
But It could be boring to have a arms race against the Sony firmware to mantain your PSP open. So maybe the DS is a better option.
I don't know nothing about the iPhone.. seems have a bad interface, judging from the comments of other dudes.

tei

Even playing emulated NES-games on a jailbroken is a real chore. You don't have any "real" buttons and because of that normal Jump 'n' Runs like Super Mario Brothers are nearly unplayable if you don't spend hours on learning to not push both A and B at the same time.

Al Bino

I want every old Sierra adventure game from the 80's and early 90's on the iPhone. Let me play Space Quest II while I'm getting a car wash and I'll be a happy lad.

Horseflesh

If you have a Iphone and like gaming..., considering its cost I bet you already also own ether a PSP or a DS.
If not, your probably not that into gaming.

Casual games will probably sell okay on mobiles, like they already do, but I really dont think most people want a hardcore rgp, GTA etc on there mobile. I mean when I got the Nokia 6680, way back..., the only hardcore game I installed on it was Doom 1. Which was installed to say to peeps, "Hay, its better than my first PC. It can run doom perfect..." However I never played it. Phones are still phones in my view.

JojoTheSlayer

Spec-wise, Apple iPhone looks impressive but the device wasn't designed as a game machine first and foremost.

ksins5

I'll be the first to concur that the iPhone won't and shouldn't ever beat/replace either a PSP or a DS as a dedicated game system.

That said, I'm getting more excited about the device (or more accurately the next revision, since I don't have one yet) with each new game announcement, I'd love to be able to replace my laptop with one eventually, but I'm gonna need at least a few good RTS/strategy titles first, fully a quarter of what this laptop does is play Homeworld 2 and Starcraft ;)

DaiMacculate

Spore.

Let us get the game system hate out of the way and point out that it is not bad for a phone.

BornToFlail

I know im looking forward to gaming on my iPhone...as long as its not just "novelty"

PenitentPenguin

The DS and PSP are primarily designed to play games though, whereas the iPhone is primarily a phone/internet browser thing, is it as easy to make games for the iPhone?

I hope they do start bringing out some awesome games for the iPhone, i've had mine for a while now and am getting bored of the applications and lack of any games without having to mod it.

Cheebahawk

As much as I love my iPhone I can't imagine playing anything but a turn based game on it.

Horseflesh

ummm yes but no thanks i am not a huge apple fan like some of those fanatics out there a phone lasts 1 1/2 years in my house it'd die even faster if i used it as a handheld gaming even tho DS and PSP are still alive...my phone on the other hand is on its last legs and its coughing.

Raziel3333

All I know is that the iphone is hella more expensive than either of the other two.

mackincheese

Probably too late to matter, but what the hell....

I love my iPhone, thought at first I was a little turned off by the idea of the convergence of my media player and my phone. It's pretty impressive performance-wise, looks nice, and is light enough that I often forget which pocket it's in. THAT SAID, it's a phone. The battery hit alone would disqualify the use of it as a gaming/iPod/phone platform. It's true that the specs are impressive, but the DS and PSP are dedicated to the games they play, while the iPhone is running a fair amount of processes in the background. Games like Monkey Ball would work, but anything that requires heavy graphics lifting isn't going to cut it. I'd be happily surprised if I'm proven wrong on this, but there's a lot more to a portable gaming experience than the power of the device.

Interstella5555

It's expensive, AND requires a Cellphone contract. With one company. I'll stick with my DS and PSP, thanks. If it wasn't for that last bit, it'd be a maybe. And no, the ipod touch isn't the same.

HikariOblivion

Cheebahawk asked: "is it as easy to make games for the iPhone?"

Yes. In fact, looking at the SDK, it almost looks as if Apple intentionally created the SDK to make creating games simple. There's OpenGL for 3D, tons of really simple 2D APIs, great sound APIs and simple ways to read screen and motion input.

I'm writing an iPhone game right now (well, not as I'm typing this, but right now in a more general sense). I hope to have it finished in a few months (prototype is running fine and playable), and I hope I can get a dev license from Apple even though I'm not American. The dev environment is a pleasure to work with, and there's tons of help for optimizing code (which is important for games). I think this is easily going to be the most important cell phone for gaming, although it clearly won't approach the DS for gaming in general, and probably won't even come too close to the PSP.

L_K_M

ds: has controls
psp: has controls
iphone: NO FUCKING BUTTONS!!!

busy