It's only been just over a year since the its release, but it would appear that the iPhone may soon move beyond the standard mobile casual gaming model and blossom into a bona fide handheld gaming platform.
Don't believe me? I can understand how some people might not. Although there has been a whole lotta buzz over the last month about high-profile games in development for the iPhone, including Spore and Touch Fighter, Dexter, a Wolfenstein RPG and Doom 2, and most recently Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, any Mac owner who is also a gamer can testify that over the years Apple systems have been far from gamer friendly, at least in the number of available titles. This of course may be an over characterization on my part, but a quick look at the offerings at Amazon's Mac Games page vs. its PC Games page will make the disparity in games on the two platforms clear. In addition to this, regardless of the upcoming game announcements, within the gaming industry there has been some questioning of Steve Jobs' commitment to iPhone gaming. The previous link contains a variety of things supposedly related to Jobs, ranging from a statement that he's not a gamer and a resulting supposition that lacking personal belief it's doubtful he'll push for game development on the iPhone, to a story, that if believed ties the establishment of Electronic Arts to 'Steve Jobs' lack of support for gaming at Apple.' Personally, I've never heard that story, but it sounds like a page turner.
The ins and outs of the various past Apple platforms aside iPhones seem to be everywhere, in my experience mostly in the hands of long-time Mac and iPod owners, which in many cases means that their primary use has not been for games. It appears though that ownership will soon surpass the early adopter demographic with sales of the third generation iPhone topping 1 million only 3 days into the launch. So, does this mean that the iPhone will be challenging the DS and PSP for dominance in the handheld market any time soon? Not likely, but as the dominance of iPhones in the smartphone market grows I can't imagine that its gaming functionality won't follow suit.
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