APP STORE WATCHER Distimo has shown once again that the Iphone is becoming the portable gaming platform of choice.
While most commentators have been concentrating on the lack of hardware and software features on the Iphone, the device is pretty well suited to casual gaming. Nintendo itself has shown the power of casual gamers with its all conquering Wii, but the handheld gaming king is being usurped by Apple.
Flurry’s figures show that the Iphone OS increased its US gaming market share by 14 per cent in 2009. Nintendo took a five per cent hit with Sony’s dying PSP showing a massive nine per cent drop, putting it far below the devices from the fruity toymaker.
Initial surprise at seeing a mediocre smartphone doing so well in a foreign market should give way to the realisation that Nintendo and Sony simply failed to evolve. The problem for the two industry stalwarts is that the Iphone takes a pragmatic approach to gaming, something that is missing from the various PSP and DS incarnations.
Sony’s PSP has always been popular with techie types not just for the high quality experience it provides but the fledgling homebrew community which brought affordable games to all. Sony and developers constantly use this as an excuse for the PSP failing to take off, but in truth paying up to 30 quid for a PSP game was just pure fantasy. The Iphone was the first portable platform to offer games, albeit of a lower quality, at throwaway prices.
Distimo’s figures show that the average price for any app varies considerably between regions, but sit comfortably above $2 in all regions. The pricing is skewed by conversion rates and pricing tiers but even the biggest spenders, Europeans, are paying on average $3.86 per app. This is still a long way below the tatty PSP and DS titles found in the second hand bin at your local games store.
With greater competition the average price paid on apps are dropping in all regions with Asian punters seeing a 27 per cent decrease since December. The problem for developers is getting their title noticed above others. With limited screen space there’s only so far users are willing to scroll down to find an app.
Developers, by nature a creative bunch, will undoubtedly come up with innovative ways to get their apps seen. Tommy Refenes saw considerable success in promoting his useless application by pushing its price up until it hit $400. With at least one documented sale at that price, Apple dumped the app which was approved by their own censors after Refenes went off on one at the recent Games Developer Conference.
Distimo’s sales figures show that unlike other app genres, any particular game is yet to dominate the sales charts throughout the world, although Plants vs. Zombies does chart highly in four out of the six territories sampled.
The Ipad should, in theory, bring more credence to the Iphone OS as a gaming platform. The innards, although lacking in general computing features, is more suited to gaming. The increased screen size, although far from providing an immersive experience, should give the punter a better feel for the game.
The problem for developers, other than getting hold of an Ipad prior to launch, is the way gamers might interface with the device. Games that rely on the relatively nimble dimensions of the Iphone will have to adapt and realise that you can’t wrap your hand around the Ipad or easily tilt the device with just one hand.
Whether we start to see games aimed at the Iphone or the Ipad side by side will be dependant not just on the developer but whether Apple filters the App Store depending on which device you are using to access it. Developers it seems aren’t particularly bothered and according to Flurry’s figures, 44 per cent of all applications that are being tested on the Ipad are games.
Although the App Store is chock full of games, it is instant messaging applications that head the sales list. App.mobiler’s Live Messenger charts in the top 10 in all markets and claims the top spot in North and South America and is in the top three in Europe and Asia.
Both Distimo and Flurry are showing that it is games developers who are most pleased at the Ipad’s impending arrival. The Iphone OS has given them an alternative platform, albeit just as closed as anything from Nintendo or Sony, to produce affordable and enjoyable games.
Nintendo, more than Sony, is seen as the grandfather of portable gaming. After leaving the likes of Atari’s Lynx and Sega’s Game Gear among others in it wake it is seeing serious competition from a company that has rarely been associated with gaming, Apple.
The way that the cappuccino company overtook Sony was by doing something that Jobs must loathe, selling something for cheap. By lowering the price of gaming, the fruity toymaker has reaped the rewards, but the question is whether Jobs’ Mob will transfer this strategy to general purpose computing. µ
