On the day of the release of the iPhone OS 3.0, and cusp of the iPhone 3GS release, I have some input from developers who have been working on it. First up, we have Shay Casey, CEO, H.Grenade:
“The new OS3.0 from Apple is an amazing opportunity to open up the iPhone as a more viral and social gaming platform. Push notification will be incredibly important for any game developer moving forward. The next biggest impact I think will be downloadable content. Will we see a ton of $.99-to-play MMOGs with a long term commerce system or are the iPhone gamers more of the purchase-play-move-on category. Publisher and developers are rightfully nervous that the App Store is like the dime store of software. Does DLC help with that impression amongst the industry or is it going to hurt it further? Only time will tell.”
“The thing I am most excited about is the rating system. Now Apple doesn’t have to worry about offending anyone by offering mature games. Grand Theft Auto could not have happened in the App Store even if Rockstar were interested, which was too bad considering the amount of “explicit” tracks available in iTunes. Not to mention tons of South Park episodes and other R rated movies and TV shows. Now games should finally be on an even playing field. Personally, I really hope that the market will start to shift away from cute, boring stuff and on to games with more risk and more reward. It can’t happen soon enough, if you ask me! We’ve really been campaigning hard and getting a superb response from titles like Circuit_Strike.One.”
“There’s a massive market for games with more in-depth control schemes and more challenge, but players really have to hunt for them. Fortunately, as this category grows it’s spawning an extremely pro-active specialist media, who will be instrumental in championing the gamers’ games.”
“The other interesting development for us if the opportunity for great peripherals with the Stereo Bluetooth for expanding the experience, like a pair of VR shades with an IMAX style surround screen and noise canceling headphones. Sell that with a wireless true six-axis dual thumbstick controller that you could use by touch alone and the iPhone could achieve a level of immersion not yet seen in gaming in general not just on a mobile platform.”
Another quote in a following post shortly …
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