This is interesting because, as MacWorld points out, smaller developers had welcomed Android as an alternative to the sometimes inscrutable policies and decisions of the iTunes App store. Not Gameloft (though hardly a “smaller developer”), which says it sells “400 times more games on iPhone than Android,” according to the finance director Alexandre de Rochefort, speaking at an investor’s conference.

Moreover, “we have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others,” Rochefort said, as reported by Reuters. “It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue.”

Reuters says that iPhone applications generated 13 per cent of Gameloft’s revenue in the last quarter.

Gameloft Says It, Others Reining in Android Plans [Reuters via MacWorld]

Red Alert for the iPhone is a new handheld version of the classic real-time strategy game. It’s trimmed down quite a bit, but it uses the iPhone’s multi-touch capability to pinch-zoom and manoeuvre units around the map, so there’s definitely enough new there to warrant a purchase. Plus, once you make it through the Soviet and Allies campaign and 12 levels of Skirmish gameplay, EA already has six more skirmish maps you can download directly through the in-game store, with an Empire of the Rising Sun expansion pack in the works that introduces a third faction to the mix.

Purchase the game now for $12.99 to get some practice in before the free multiplayer update hits, allowing friends to take to the battlefield via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It looks like EA is planning to squeeze as much out of the iPhone Red Alert as they possibly can. Will you be buying?

Mobigame rebranded the game in the United States and United Kingdom markets specifically to neutralise any claim Tim Langdell’s Edge Games—notorious for challenging any use of the word “Edge” by video game developers—might make against the game. A news release from Mobigame stressed that no agreement or settlement had been reached with Langdell.

The game was originally available as EDGE on the App Store in the US and UK from March to about May. Its takedown was largely attributed to Langdell, although he says Mobigame itself asked Apple to remove the application in light of the legal dispute.

“We renamed to ‘Edge by Mobigame’ for the US and the UK market only to have the approval from Apple (and we have it now),” Mobigame’s David Papazian told Kotaku. “On the legal side, he cannot claim anything against ‘Edge by Mobigame’ and Apple knows that, so we hope everything will be alright now.”

Papazian expressed confidence that Electronic Arts will prevail in its recent appeal for the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel five Edge-related trademarks held by Langdell, on grounds they both have been abandoned and were fraudulently obtained. EA’s suit arises from a dispute over its 2008 title “Mirror’s Edge.” Langdell vehemently disputes EA’s claims.

In iPeePee, by Mobiguo, you play an inebriated male trying to get your stream into a urinal or other receptacle as the room spins. You can pee on powerups or debuffs (the radio = ouch) but watch out, adding beer to charge up your pee stream makes the room spin worse. There’s a hold button, but no “hop on one leg” dance.

Remember, all Kotaku employees must wash hands thoroughly before returning to work.

iPeePee Tinkles All Over the App Store [Pocket Gamer]

“I expected we’ll see a PlayStation 3.5 before we see a PlayStation 4 and an Xbox 560 before we see an Xbox 720,” Rich Hilleman told Dean Takahashi and VentureBeat. “The biggest shift is how fast packaged goods games are changing and going away.”

That means online distribution. And by that, he means mobile gaming, and delivery of mobile games. Hilleman pointed out that with the DS, PSP and PSPgo, and iPhone, mobile units outnumber consoles two-to-one. The iPhone especially is part of the “democratisation of game development”, both increasing competition for EA, but also lowering development costs.

On the console side, Hilleman blamed piracy and used sale for what he says is the end of games’ long tail. But, he said, markets like Korea show there’s plenty of growth upon which a corporate behemoth may feed.

“If I want to go to see the past of gaming, I go to Japan,” Hilleman told Takahashi. “If I want to see the future, I go to Korea.” There, he says, are 28,000 parlours where Internet gamers pay by the hour, and the establishments reap high margins off of concession sales. Hilleman also pointed to Webkinz as a forward-facing brand, less so Burnout, where 2:1 ratio of users to games sold makes apparent the influence of used sales and piracy to a publisher’s bottom line.

Also of interest in this piece: Takahashi’s back-of-the-envelope calculations based on the idea that EA typically spends two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game.

That’s because advertising is critical to getting a game in the top ten rankings. If you have a $US10 million game, don’t be surprised if the the TV advertising costs drive the ad budget to $US30 million. If a $US60 game yields revenue of $US35 for EA, then (according to my math) the company has to sell 1.1 million copies just to break even.

EA’S Chief Creative Officer Describes Games Industry’s Re-Engineering [Venturebeat via Blue's News]

Loved
Comprehensive Coverage: Gameloft managed to pack what is basically a Nintendo 64 version of Madden football into an iPhone – and not as an emulated ROM, but built from the ground up. Some might find this alone enough to reward its $US4.99 price, and if so, Gameloft earned it. NFL 2010 delivers a playbook more than 100 plays deep, live announcer commentary, pre-game animations, post-play reactions, configurable depth charts, a 17-week NFL season with its real players, and a playoffs mode if you want a smaller-size multigame experience. It’s the most complete sports experience on the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.

Hated
Camera, Inaction!: The video rarely stays at the same angle or framerate. Sometimes it’s because the size of the game is overwhelming the iPhone’s processor. Other times, its deliberately slowing the action down so you can hit a special move key, whose appearances are not entirely predictable. There is a horrible camera zoom every time your runner reaches the line of scrimmage, whether you’re breaking it to the outside or running up the gut. You’re zoomed so far in you can’t see the next blocker coming and when you run past the camera position you’re often off the screen entirely. The zoom in on receivers catching a pass is likewise terrible. I was rarely able to run after a catch.

Go Back, Jack, Do It Again: If you intend to play a full game for keeps, or any game in a season mode, don’t take any calls. Yeah, you can mash the pause button or turn the phone off to go take a dump or feed the dog or whatever, and come back and pick up where you left off. But leaving the application idle as you do something else in the iPhone will take you back to the beginning of the most recent incomplete quarter when you return. That’s bad. It commits you to doing nothing else in your device for 30 minutes, or at least to finish the quarter at risk of having that lead-changing 80-yard drive wiped out. Sure, I don’t expect to be able to save my game mid-play on a console. But mum doesn’t call me on the Xbox. A mobile game has to reasonably cope with real life interruptions, and NFL 2010 forces you to schedule around them.

As a proof of just how deep an iPhone game can be, NFL 2010 is a stout achievement. It’s definitely playing in a console-game league. But of course, if this game was on a console, it’d get crushed in comparison to Madden. So it’s grander than just an arcade-style football game, but still very limited next to console season simulators that hardcore football fans, if they’re interested in trying one on this device, are probably already playing.

Many will find its price a bargain if they’re promised an entire season of football on their iPhone, and for $US4.99, NFL 2010 over-delivers. But as a game it’s in a limbo of sorts, with long-lasting games at the expense of pick-up-and-play appeal, and a season experience that does plenty but nothing particularly eye-popping. It’s both too much and not enough.

NFL 2010 was developed and published by Gameloft for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Released to the iTunes App Store on Aug. 4. Retails for $US4.99 USD. Reviewed on an iPhone 3G. Played quick play, season, and playoff modes.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Interplay has granted Gameloft exclusive rights to develop, distribute, and publish Earthworm Jim as a downloadable title across the current crop of titles, as well as mobile devices, meaning an iPhone Earthworm Jim might not be out of the question. Gameloft is understandably delighted.

“We are delighted to partner with Interplay to bring Earthworm Jim to multiple downloadable platforms,” said Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president, Gameloft. “The game, with its humorous and edgy style, is a great fit for today’s gamer who craves a fully immersive experience that is fun and easily accessible. We look forward to delivering a fantastic game.”

It should be easy enough, seeing as the fantastic game already exists! And it shall exist again, sometime during the final quarter of 2009, with the Xbox 360 getting one-month worth of timed exclusivity.

Loved
All the Rage: This is a straight-up emulation of the Genesis original, so of course everything you love and remember from the 16-bit sidescrolling beat-em-up is here, right down to the sound tests in your start menu. The chop-socky music, Adam’s “whooul-yah!” flying attack, Blaze’s upskirt when she’s thrown to the ground, and, of course, suplexing those screeching biker chicks, it’s still a great trip down memory lane.

Hated
Outta Control: Unfortunately, since this is a straight-up emulation of the Genesis original, that means the control system is what’s getting reviewed. You’re given three options, all with serious drawbacks. By default, Streets of Rage overlays a translucent D-pad and A, B and C buttons. This gives you the best view of the action, but when bad guys go hide on the edges of the screen, as they usually do, it’s hard to see them under your thumb and fingers. An alternate view, setting the D-pad and buttons inside a frame surrounding the screen, solves that problem. Unfortunately, it shrinks the playing screen by more than a third. Still, for the game’s later levels, this mode is recommended. Finally, there’s an accelerometer mode replacing the D-pad. It’s gimmicky at best, and feels disconnected from the action, particularly for the grappling attacks. The throw combo is nearly impossible to pull off with it. Your best bet is one of the two D-pad modes, remembering that light touches will move your controller just fine. Otherwise your hand will cramp up, especially if you’re hellbent on beating the game in one sitting.

Whoa, framerate: This game was reviewed on a second-generation iPhone. With a lot of enemies on the screen, or the rudimentary environmental effects like waves, rain, blowing trash, etc., I found the emulator really bogging down and slowing both the framerate and the soundtrack – especially, it seemed, if the accelerometer was enabled. This is a significant problem, notably in a boss battle with a lot of supporting henchmen. The game’s App Store page says a patch is on the way to improve performance for 3GS versions.

What kept Streets of Rage from being repetitive – relative to its time of course – was the two player cooperation and the fighting combos you could pull off. On the iPhone and iPod Touch, it’s single player only, and the combos are slightly more difficult to execute with this control scheme. Especially that satisfying B+A back attack. Further, when I played the original, I seem to recall that I could grapple, knee-butt a boss twice, vault, disengage and grab, butt him twice more, and rinse-and-repeat my way to fast victory. With this scheme, not so much. You’ll find yourself a lot of the time whacking the B button just to get through a level, rather than using the vaults and throws and grab attacks that make the game a creative diversion.

But if the point is to give you old-school console action to kill time on your mobile, then, OK, Streets of Rage will, within the limits of the device, provide the complete single player experience you recall.

Streets of Rage was developed and published by Sega for the iPhone and iPod Touch on July 14. Available on iTunes App Store for $US4.99. Played all characters on standard difficulty using all control schemes, completing the game with Axel and beating arse galore with Blaze and Adam.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

An announcement on the Community & News board of the official Web site Catan.com declared today that “the game is being developed by Exozet Games in collaboration with Catan designer Klaus Teuber.” It will be published by United Soft Media. Exozet was also responsible for last year’s Catan, the First Island on handset mobiles (pictured).

As an iPhone owner and a recent convert to Catan – my friends here in Oregon play it obsessively – I’m delighted by the news. Perhaps this won’t be as social as the tabletop game, as trading makes up a good chunk of the decisions until someone gets squarely in the lead. But it’s still one of the more thought-provoking strategy games out there, video or otherwise.

My newbie advice – go for the 3:1 trading ports, build the longest road – with no more than one spur – instead of the largest army, and squat on ore if its dice number is favourable.

Official ‘Settlers of Catan’ Coming to iPhone [TouchArcade via PocketGamer