Brian GarnerIn an interview with gaming website Kotaku, John Carmack revealed that top executives at Apple do not look fondly on the growing popularity of games on the iPod Touch and iPhone.
"At the highest level of Apple, in their heart of hearts," Carmack reportedly said, "they're not proud of the iPhone being a game machine, they wish it was something else."
Despite this sentiment, the iPod Touch has seen an increased push as a gaming machine by Apple advertising, calling the Touch "the funnest iPod ever." Apple has gone so far as to directly compare the iPhone/Touch platform to the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP hand held gaming systems, touting that the App store contained 21,179 gaming and entertainment titles versus 3,680 for the DS and 607 for the PSP.
Carmack believes the executives at Apple have had to embrace the iPhone/Touch as a gaming platform as a result of the overwhelming popularity that games have enjoyed at the App store. Apple executive John Geleynse was quoted earlier this year as saying "it's not a phone, it's a console experience."
AppleInsider recently reported that Japanese game maker Nintendo had seen profits nearly cut in half compared to last year, which many attribute to increased competition from the iPhone and iPod touch.
The iPhone/Touch has a distinct distribution advantage over the DS, which relies almost entirely on physical copies of games versus the App Store's entirely digital method of distribution. Furthermore, the average App Store game is in the $5 to $10 dollar range while the average DS game hovers closer to $30.
With more and more established console game companies such as Electronic Arts, id Software, and Konami making serous forays into App store gaming, it seems like the iPhone/Touch will continue to be major players in the world of handheld gaming, whether Apple likes it or not.
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184 Comments
There was a recently drama shown here in the UK about the 8-bit computer wars of the 1980s, and particularly the rivarly between Sinclair and Acorn. The Sinclair Spectrum was the biggest selling computer of the era, largely due to gaming, but the head of Sinclair, Sir Clive Sinclair himself hated that fact.
It wouldn't surprise me if Jobs felt the same. Despite it's massive popularity gaming is still looked down upon my many people. Jobs may have wished the iPhone to just be a blackberry killer with a built in iPod. Instead, at least to some people, it's a Nintendo DS rival, with an iPod and a Blackberry built in.
Then again Jobs is as driven by a desire for profit as much as any other billionaire, so he may have already seen the light of gaming.
I could believe this. Wouldn't Apple have released a control pad if they really wanted it to succeed in gaming?
They could at least suggest a standard so third party accessory and case makers could build a single interface. Plus game makers need to feel comfortable programming for these so there's not like 5 of them out there that no one programs for, which is probably what'll happen eventually without some kind of leadership.
"At the highest level of Apple, in their heart of hearts," Carmack reportedly said, "they're not proud of the iPhone being a game machine, they wish it was something else."
Well what Apple can do is segregate the Top Selling Apps in the App Store by categories, that would help a lot.
Plus for the marvelous waste of $100 a month for a consumer level phone, I would be gaming on the thing myself to extract maximum value! Good thing I can't see the screen.
Games are a great time killer and fun. Just include a tray at the bottom of each iPhone to collect coins and a pull handle and you'll really rake in the profits.
I think Apple is just sore that they missed such a huge market by ignoring 3D gamers all these years because they had this complex of trying to be taken seriously all the time.Poor Apple, they built a all purpose device and let the free market and consumers dictate what it was going to be and now they are moaning because they are making tons of money and people just want to escape the pressures of life, the economy and lack of jobs etc, by killing time playing games.Hello Apple! Your a (impulsive) luxury consumer products company.
John Carmack yaps a lot. He also tends to get more vocal when he doesn't get his way on something. Take anything he says with a grain of salt.
kotatsu, I don't agree with your statement about Jobs being driven by a desire for profit - I believe he is a control-freak and is driven by the desire to build devices that look and operate a certain way, and anything else is unacceptable - "I will build it my way, and if you don't like it, tough beans."
I think Apple execs are perfectly happy with the popularity of gaming on iPhone/Touch. At the same time I do think they would like to see more business purpose adoption with the platform. I think the slow uptake in businesses disappoints them, but I don't think they're disappointed by the games.
1) Nintendo’s excessive drop in profits seem to stem more from the dropping Wii sales, which the Touch doesn’t directly compete with.
2) The DSi has OTA downloads of games.
3) The link is a little more telling about Carmack’s plan for iPhone OS games, their profit compared to other platforms and why the Android platform currently holds little interest…