iPhone users love their video games

[Sonicpro]

Within days of buying his iPhone, John Furrier discovered that his 13-year-old son, Alec, was sneaking off with the device and downloading games. To reclaim his phone, Furrier had to buy his son an iPod Touch, which Alec quickly filled up with Pac-Man, Magic 8 Ball and dozens of other games.

"When he's not playing on his Xbox 360, he's playing on the iPod," said Furrier, a 43-year-old entrepreneur and blogger in Palo Alto.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone is a cellphone, Web-surfing gadget and digital media player rolled into one. The iPod Touch is the same, minus the cellphone. But to many people's surprise, one of the devices' most popular uses is as a hand-held video game system.

Games have become the fastest-growing and most popular type of application for iPhone and iPod Touch owners, outpacing all other categories available on Apple's App Store. As of Friday evening, 7 of the top 10 selling applications for the devices were games.

"This was an amazing surprise to us to see how much games have taken off," said Stan Ng, Apple's senior director of product marketing.

Game developers have taken to the platform, creating nearly 1,700 games since the online App Store launched in June. That's more than twice the number available in the store's second-largest category, entertainment, which includes music and video.

Neil Young liked his iPhone so much that, in June, the 43-year-old gave up a lucrative job as a senior executive of Electronic Arts Inc. to start a small company that develops games for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

"I found that my iPhone was never very far away from me," Young said. "I was constantly checking e-mail, downloading apps, playing games, browsing the Internet. My personal usage was measurably different from any phone or game machine I've ever had before. It led me to think that there was a dramatically new market opportunity for gaming on a unique mobile device."

With funding from Maples Investments and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Young founded Ngmoco: ) Inc. in San Francisco. The strangely named start-up recently launched two games and is developing a dozen others. Its two titles, MazeFinger and Topple, are among the App Store's 10 most-downloaded applications.

It's not just independent developers drawn to the iPhone. Companies such as Electronic Arts, the world's largest game publisher, are also jumping on the bandwagon. EA's Spore Origins game, which sells at the App Store for $9.99, uses the iPhone's accelerometer -- a built-in mechanism for detecting motion -- and its touch screen to let players navigate a virtual primordial soup. They tilt the phone and tap on the screen to guide their creatures in search of food.

Spore Origins' graphics are lush and realistic, making other cellphone games look primitive by comparison.

"The iPhone is essentially a computer in your pocket," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consulting firm in Campbell, Calif.

"Developers like it because it has the same operating system as a Mac, which makes it easy to program."

They also like the business model. For a 30% cut of each sale, Apple distributes games and other third-party applications through the App Store, which consumers can browse and download on a computer or directly on their device via Wi-Fi.

About 1 in 4 iPhone owners has downloaded games, compared with about 6% of all cellphone users, according to a study in July by Nielsen Mobile.

"The biggest impact is the App Store," said Barry Cottle, general manager of EA Mobile. "That was a real breakthrough in people's eyes. The store has beautiful screen shots, lots of room for descriptions and demos. That's making an impact for the industry, and it's creating renewed interest in gaming among mobile users."

Pham is a Times staff writer.

Source

I love my iPhone 3G, specifically for internet and apps! However the iPhone's App Store needs to be more orginized since 1500 games are out! iTunes's interface is fine though.

[Pocketim]

Honestly, the iPhone needs more attention as a gaming system... Dizzy Bee is for the win =D

Plus, recently I got Nanosaur 2 for my iPhone and the graphics are AMAZING. By amazing, I mean good enough to rival the PSP o_o

[Super Mario]

I don't really have much to comment on this...
I just don't think this thread is that interesting...
My friend has an iPhone. He seems to like it...

[PstlP]

that is so lame apple should stick with what they know.

[Sora]

Not just the iPhone, but the iPod Touch too. I love the games on my 'Touch. GG Apple.

[nimmoa1]

i phones boo
itouch YAYAYA/AYAAY
the cube avoider is a win on any poll

[Zezima]

Originally Posted by nimmoa1

i phones boo
itouch YAYAYA/AYAAY
the cube avoider is a win on any poll

there both awesome. rlly awesome. but to expensive.

[Kyon]

You just got to love them games. They might not be the best games though.

They need to make a apple product called the "iGame" made just for gaming.

[10Ruben12]

Originally Posted by Takako

You just got to love them games. They might not be the best games though.

They need to make a apple product called the "iGame" made just for gaming.

Yup i agree with Takako
Iphone is like a fusion of celphone and ipod and obviusly contains games ... those games make ppl go addicted :O and then they "love" those games


and an new apple product with only games its a good idea

[Pokemon Trainer]

Originally Posted by 10Ruben12

Yup i agree with Takako
Iphone is like a fusion of celphone and ipod and obviusly contains games ... those games make ppl go addicted :O and then they "love" those games


and an new apple product with only games its a good idea

My dad has one but never really lets me see it cause he thinks i'll download gamez lol so i would agree that the games are addictive (i downloaded one be4 )supa monky ball XD

[Z-DL]

Wow, I think I've seen article about this on IGN or something, that ppl are prefering their iphones over their portable games. Uh oh, Sony and Nintendo, it looks like you got some unlikely competition in the near future.