IGN: Three years ago, in my very first column for IGN, I claimed the (then-fictional) touch-screen iPod would be the future of mobile gaming. Now, everybody's finally convinced... except me. No lie, iPhone games are a quantum leap over the cell phone games of old, and considering there are already 30,000 game apps and climbing, I'd be remiss to say they're all bad.
Revenue rose by only 0.2% year-on-year, while downloads increased by 4.6%
US consumer spending on video games reached $5.9 billion in December 2025, an increase of 3% year-over-year (YoY). This rise was partially fuelled by an increase in subscription services spend, which rose 24% from December 2024.
Well Call of Duty was the best selling game of December……interesting. Considering everyone was going Gaga over Medal of Honor.
It’s not just another AMD-equipped handheld, but comes with a glasses-free 3D screen, similar to that found on the Nintendo 3DS. It’s kitted out with some impressive specs for the current handheld environment, but it won’t blow anyone away who has kept up with the space in recent months.
The games are fine, but simple. iGaming is much more successful because it's much more casual. Because of that, I doubt Apple cares for matching something like the DS because they don't have to in order to have the success that they have.
I find the touch screen much too clumsy for a majority if iGames that clearly needs buttons. And for gamers that aren't as casual buttons are the main thing that the iPhone games needs. Unfortunately, there is zero incentive to do that.
The igames appeal much more because:
-They are incredibly cheaper
-They are simple, and often addictive games
-They appeal to the iPhone user, who is a casual gamer to begin with
Apple doesn't have to do jack to "fix" iGaming. Their audience is happy.
For people looking for a more serious handheld there is the PSP and the DS.
Apple should let users use a bluetooth based controls that would be comptible with there games. Hell, I use my bros wii mote to play games with some emulators. Don't see how hard it'll be for Apple to give people somehwat of a better incentive on those iGames on using a third party physical application.
I do like playing games in my iTouch though and some games are actually better with the accelerometer/ touch controls. Gta Chinatown wars is a great example. It has the perks of the DS version but the graphics of the PSP version. Basically, behind most crap games, some are some great gems.
Imagine being able to play COD Zombies with the PS3 controller. That would be pretty b!ching considering how horrid it is to play that game.