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iPhone Not a Viable Platform?
Analyst Dishes His Opinion
by Coop
Michael Pachter, best known for being the least wrong videogame analyst, recently explained his views on the iPhone as a video game platform. While impressed with its capabilities, with titles such as Spore and Super Monkey Ball being ported over with impressive looking results, he doesn’t truly believe it has what it takes to compete in the market.
At a retail price of $400, the iPhone sits next to the Playstation 3 in terms of cost, a price that some say is still too much to ask for a gaming system. It also doesn’t really appear that developers are flocking to the platform, with only a select few making games for the phone.
He also explains that the gaming aspect of the device is a small group that will likely never grow.
“To the extent that hip, rich people are an interesting gaming audience, iPhone games will work. My guess is that this group is only interested in the most rudimentary games, and that the market will be small.”
I do think there is a market for iPhone games, but not one worth focusing on for large developers. With dozens of companies focusing on developing mediocre titles for every phone on the market, iPhone users will definitely get something to do in-between watching Youtube videos and talking on iChat.
What Patcher says isn’t really seen as law in the industry, as even the best gaming analysts only clock in at about 35% accuracy, but it is still interesting to hear what the industry thinks of the iPhone.
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