Aleks Krotoski from the Guardian interviewed Brian Greenstone at this year’s SXSWi on the success of Enigmo on the iPhone.
I interviewed Brian last year and he explained he was no longer developing Mac games. Why? Because gaming on the Mac is dead. In Aleks’ interview Brian is a little more upbeat. He says not all Mac developers have moved to the iPhone and are still developing Mac titles. I think he’s more upbeat because he’s got $1.5 million sitting in the bank. And hell, if that’s not a reason to be upbeat, what is? Just look at Brian’s face in the interview - he has a $1.5 million grin!
As I said last year, Enigmo is a marvelously designed game and perfect for the iPhone. The success of the title is down to Brian’s experience in game development, great timing and Apple’s intense focus. As Brian says, he was in the right place at the right time. But it goes to show that Apple can do great things for developers and change the face of gaming.
The iPhone has quickly become mobile gaming. It’s attracting big developers like id and smaller developers like Pangea. It’s just a shame that Mac gaming as a whole is morphing into gaming on the iPhone. Speak to most people about Macs and games, it’s the iPhone that comes to mind.
Sometimes I think I’m a miserable bastard when it comes to Mac games. I’m always complaining that there ain’t enough titles or Apple don’t do enough. In the case of the iPhone it’s not true. Apple have done much. As Brains says:
The iPhone has seen more than its share of such games, and by “more than its share” I’m saying the percentage of truly awful iPhone games is extraordinarily high relative to other systems.
I should note this observation is based on an unscientific sampling of 50 or so iPhone games played (some for only a few minutes) over the course of the last two weeks. It’s entirely possible I simply picked the wrong batch of games. The problem is that it’s very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff…and, as I’ve discovered, the iTunes App Store’s definition of wheat (based on sales and user reviews) is usually my idea of chaff. More on that in a moment, but first some dizzying data:
The ongoing avalanche of iPhone games is unparalleled in the history of gaming. In the 20 months since its release, 6439 games have been released for the device, accounting for 23% of all iPhone apps, and nearly doubling the nearest category (entertainment).
Compare these numbers to those of the Nintendo DS, the device on track to become the most successful game system in history. In the 4 years and 4 months since it appeared, approximately 800 games have been released for the system worldwide. That’s 15 new DS games per month versus 322 new iPhone games per month, and the iPhone numbers continue to accelerate.
So the reasons behind the wheat/chaff problem are fairly obvious, and while I initially applauded Apple’s decision to avoid playing application gatekeeper, I’ve begun to wonder if somebody ought to at least be playing quality control officer. Letting the market sort things out makes sense under some circumstances, but the abysmal system of perusing games and reviews via iTunes makes this nearly impossible.
iPhone gaming is great. But the Mac needs games too. Brian sums it up well: the iPhone is “more entertaining” and “makes fifty times more money” than his Mac games. If the iPhone is a fun device and the Mac just doesn’t cut it, maybe I’m trying to fight the future?
As a way to spur development of games for Mac, what about an App Store for Mac OS X? iTunes is sitting there, waiting to be turned into a desktop App Store. Maybe if there was a marketed games API, focus from Apple, the ability for developers to cut distribution costs and prevent piracy, gaming could have a home on the Mac?
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