iPhone Gets Games…and Virtual Reality?

Wagner James Au, Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 10:30 AM PT Comments (3)

igloobvrweb.jpgLast summer we wondered where the games for the iPhone were. Now we know they’re coming, in a big way.

Apple last week showed off the details of its SDK, with VP Scott Forstall promoting it as “a great platform to develop games on.” Just as crucial, publishing giant Electronic Arts said they’d be porting Will Wright’s greatly anticipated Spore and other franchises to the iPhone.

The editor of leading game industry site Next Generation is duly excited by the iPhone’s potential as a game platform, touting its large install base, online distribution network, and intuitive touch-screen interface. All true, but I wouldn’t crown the iPhone king of the phone game platform quite yet. The Google-backed Android, for example, is open source, and the search giant is sponsoring a $10 million developer challenge for Android applications, including games.

Other third-party developers are considering even more exotic applications of Apple’s SDK: A company called BOXFab is cooking up plans to release “a Virtual Reality display device which uses the iPhone as the viewing plate so that it becomes a wearable virtual headset simply by clipping on a special attachment.” Very interesting, if they can pull it off — and convince consumers to clip a phone to their face.

Image credit: BOXfab.com.

Rating: 48% Thumbs Up Thumbs Down

3 comments so far

March 12th, 2008
3:13 PM PT
English said:

I guess this is good, although I can’t really see myself playing that many games using only that touch screen. It seems to me like it wouldn’t be reliable, and it would take a lot of getting used to.

March 12th, 2008
5:18 PM PT
steveballmer said:

NOT IMPRESSED!

Apple will ruin anything that touched the iPhomb!

March 13th, 2008
8:58 AM PT
Ben said:

If you want to find out more about iPhone/iPod touch games then check out (link)

looks great

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