6 ms·

Exactly. The hardcore PC/console gaming crowd is in for an unwelcome wake up call: the future of gaming is mobile. In fact, it isn't even limited to the future,

by llambda 15y ago

Exactly. The hardcore PC/console gaming crowd is in for an unwelcome wake up call: the future of gaming is mobile. In fact, it isn't even limited to the future, it's already happening. I think it's fair to say that devices like the iPhone and iPad will be seen as the originators of this revolution. So maybe that group of avid enthusiasts is a little more insightful than the author is willing to give them credit for.

moomin 15y ago
I agree: mobile gaming is the wave of the future. But if you want to know who has affected gaming most since its inception, the answer's pretty much got to be Shigeru Miyamoto. The problem with this poll is that it works just like "greatest movies of all time" polls. People have the attention span of mayflies.
- danso 15y ago
  Agree completely with you. And to my shame, I didn't read the poll question well enough. I had thought it was about what had the greatest impact in the last 15 years or so. But given that the responses were: iPhone: 17% Wii: 7% Xbox Live: 3% PlayStation One: 3% Steam: 2% All of those are relatively modern. I would easily put the original Nintendo and/or Gameboy before most of those. The poll question is terrible and the respondents have too short a perspective. Then again, if you're an avid fan and/or professional, you ought to be polled on things looking forward. Much respect to the original game developers, but anyone who is in the industry today who is going to focus on the great accomplishments in the 8-bit era are going to find themselves in the same trouble as Nintendo's current revenue trend.
  - ohashi 15y ago
    Nintendo DS units shipped: 149 million Nintendo Wii units shipped: 89 million (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_conso...) As of March this year, Apple sold 100 million iPhones. So let's put things in perspective, Nintendo is an absolutely amazing company in the gaming space and has outsold all their competitors (with the exception of Sony PS2) and has sold far more than Apple across their product lines. I am not saying mobile gaming isn't huge (And perhaps handhelds like GameBoy/DS/PSP should be given their credit here), but to give Apple and Steve Jobs credit for shaping the gaming industry more than the real titans of gaming who have actively shaped it for 20 years? Bullshit.
    - Samuel_Michon 15y ago
      As of October this year, Apple sold 250 million iOS devices (That’s iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.) http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/04/250-million-ios-devices-sold/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/04/250-million-ios-devices-sol...
      - ohashi 15y ago
        Which isn't that far off from only those 2 nintendo products. So to claim Apple was wildly more influential seems flawed by the numbers.
        Samuel_Michon 15y ago
        "to claim Apple was wildly more influential seems flawed by the numbers." I didn't. My message is to please use recent figures for the entire platform, not old sales numbers for just iPhones. Also, nowadays Apple sells more iOS devices than Nintendo sells handhelds and consoles. Nintendo and Sony had a head start, they've been passed by Apple in just four years.
        ohashi 15y ago
        Fair enough on the numbers, thanks for posting the updated figure. DS was 2004 and Wii was 2006. Iphone was 2007, it wasn't that big a head start.
        nirvdrum 15y ago
        I never really understood comparing those numbers anyway. As impressive as iPhone sales are, they're not all used for games. Every DS/PSP/3DS were sold with the intention of playing games on. Gaming on my iPhone is terrible, IMHO. Angry Birds can be entertaining, but any comparable game to what I play on the DS is just too frustrating to play on a touch screen-only device. From my observations, facebook has had a much larger impact on gaming than iPhone has. I have plenty of older relatives that'll tend to a virtual farm on facebook but won't play games on their phones.
      - 15y ago
- Steko 15y ago
  "the answer's pretty much got to be Shigeru Miyamoto" No it doesn't have to be. Miyamoto is unquestionably the most innovative game designer but Apple really changed the industry from magic in a box to hey the 16 year old down the street just made $10,000 with a game he made by himself.
_delirium 15y ago
I can believe that a larger proportion of gaming will be on mobile devices, but I see it as more of a swinging pendulum than a revolution. You had the same wave of "mobile revolution in gaming!" articles in the tech press in 1989, when the Game Boy was released, and it did indeed have a significant effect on the game industry and game design. Kind of waned for a bit, now is back.
- technoslut 15y ago
  The tech wasn't ready yet but everyone could see it back then. It may not be ready now but it's really close. I would give the console one more generation of dominance before everything is upended.
Splenivore 15y ago
> the future of gaming is mobile. The future of casual gaming, sure. That’s already true, I would say. However, there are a lot of games that are far better suited to be played on a couch or sitting in a nice comfy chair with a mouse and keyboard, and PCs/consoles are much better suited for that. If anything, the iPhone and iPad have only stolen the market from portable devices like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. “Real” consoles are hardly threatened.
- steventruong 15y ago
  If we're going to be talking about the future, that doesn't necessarily mean that Apple won't enter the hardcore market some day. After all, it's all up to the developers and game studios, and with everything merging into the living room, it's a real possibility.
- mayanksinghal 15y ago
  I definitely agree. Casual gaming has its place, but hardcore gamers and consoles have a market that is no way threatened by gaming on portable devices. While, Angry birds and Zynga brought large sections of population into gaming, their involvement in hardcore gaming is still minimal. I will possibly be downvoted for this, but the amount of research that has been contributed by hardcore game development companies far surpasses the amount that casual game developers have produced. There is a visible differentiator between the two segments of gaming - and it will probably always be there.
  - aapl 15y ago
    Mobile and online casual games have been pulling in very impressive profits for the last 3-4 years while many companies have seen console and PC retail profits decrease in the same period. The demand for hardcore games isn't being threatened but the supply might face harder competition for funds with casual games now. "Might" as in I don't know how these AAA game publishers are organised internally. If the console division of Capcom sees decreased profits while the mobile division sees increased profits [1], does that mean that people and capital can get reallocated from the console division to the mobile division? [1] http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/26/non-mobile-capcom-profits-smurfed-up-in-first-half-of-fiscal-yea/ http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/26/non-mobile-capcom-profits-...
rzbn 15y ago
thats like saying the future of watching movies is watching youtube on mobile devices. Hardcore games are not going anywhere. But casual games will be played more.
vacri 15y ago
Patent nonsense. The future of gaming is not AAA titles that play out on a 3" screen. Maybe for casual gaming, but not for the big stuff.
- vacri 15y ago
  Why the hell is rzbn's comment below dead and mine just above is upmodded? They're saying the same thing. Modding on HN is bizzare and fickle
talmand 15y ago
Well, I'm a PC gamer and I have to say that I cannot possibly see myself playing the majority of the games I play now on a phone with no solid control scheme and a 4" screen. Touch screens do not play well with non-casual games. I've tried some of the cute RTS games available for my Android phone and they're practically unplayable because my finger obscures my view of the screen. Now, if you're saying that at some point in the future I'll be using my phone for gaming by plugging it into my TV via HDMI and using a keyboard/mouse combo via USB or Bluetooth, then sure. But at that point it's no different than what I'm doing now.

by llambda 15y ago

moomin 15y ago

I agree: mobile gaming is the wave of the future. But if you want to know who has affected gaming most since its inception, the answer's pretty much got to be Shigeru Miyamoto. The problem with this poll is that it works just like "greatest movies of all time" polls. People have the attention span of mayflies.

danso 15y ago
Agree completely with you. And to my shame, I didn't read the poll question well enough. I had thought it was about what had the greatest impact in the last 15 years or so. But given that the responses were: iPhone: 17% Wii: 7% Xbox Live: 3% PlayStation One: 3% Steam: 2% All of those are relatively modern. I would easily put the original Nintendo and/or Gameboy before most of those. The poll question is terrible and the respondents have too short a perspective. Then again, if you're an avid fan and/or professional, you ought to be polled on things looking forward. Much respect to the original game developers, but anyone who is in the industry today who is going to focus on the great accomplishments in the 8-bit era are going to find themselves in the same trouble as Nintendo's current revenue trend.
- ohashi 15y ago
  Nintendo DS units shipped: 149 million Nintendo Wii units shipped: 89 million (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_conso...) As of March this year, Apple sold 100 million iPhones. So let's put things in perspective, Nintendo is an absolutely amazing company in the gaming space and has outsold all their competitors (with the exception of Sony PS2) and has sold far more than Apple across their product lines. I am not saying mobile gaming isn't huge (And perhaps handhelds like GameBoy/DS/PSP should be given their credit here), but to give Apple and Steve Jobs credit for shaping the gaming industry more than the real titans of gaming who have actively shaped it for 20 years? Bullshit.
  - Samuel_Michon 15y ago
    As of October this year, Apple sold 250 million iOS devices (That’s iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.) http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/04/250-million-ios-devices-sold/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/04/250-million-ios-devices-sol...
    - ohashi 15y ago
      Which isn't that far off from only those 2 nintendo products. So to claim Apple was wildly more influential seems flawed by the numbers.
      - Samuel_Michon 15y ago
        "to claim Apple was wildly more influential seems flawed by the numbers." I didn't. My message is to please use recent figures for the entire platform, not old sales numbers for just iPhones. Also, nowadays Apple sells more iOS devices than Nintendo sells handhelds and consoles. Nintendo and Sony had a head start, they've been passed by Apple in just four years.
        ohashi 15y ago
        Fair enough on the numbers, thanks for posting the updated figure. DS was 2004 and Wii was 2006. Iphone was 2007, it wasn't that big a head start.
        nirvdrum 15y ago
        I never really understood comparing those numbers anyway. As impressive as iPhone sales are, they're not all used for games. Every DS/PSP/3DS were sold with the intention of playing games on. Gaming on my iPhone is terrible, IMHO. Angry Birds can be entertaining, but any comparable game to what I play on the DS is just too frustrating to play on a touch screen-only device. From my observations, facebook has had a much larger impact on gaming than iPhone has. I have plenty of older relatives that'll tend to a virtual farm on facebook but won't play games on their phones.
    - 15y ago
Steko 15y ago
"the answer's pretty much got to be Shigeru Miyamoto" No it doesn't have to be. Miyamoto is unquestionably the most innovative game designer but Apple really changed the industry from magic in a box to hey the 16 year old down the street just made $10,000 with a game he made by himself.

_delirium 15y ago

I can believe that a larger proportion of gaming will be on mobile devices, but I see it as more of a swinging pendulum than a revolution. You had the same wave of "mobile revolution in gaming!" articles in the tech press in 1989, when the Game Boy was released, and it did indeed have a significant effect on the game industry and game design. Kind of waned for a bit, now is back.

technoslut 15y ago
The tech wasn't ready yet but everyone could see it back then. It may not be ready now but it's really close. I would give the console one more generation of dominance before everything is upended.

Splenivore 15y ago

> the future of gaming is mobile. The future of casual gaming, sure. That’s already true, I would say. However, there are a lot of games that are far better suited to be played on a couch or sitting in a nice comfy chair with a mouse and keyboard, and PCs/consoles are much better suited for that. If anything, the iPhone and iPad have only stolen the market from portable devices like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. “Real” consoles are hardly threatened.

steventruong 15y ago
If we're going to be talking about the future, that doesn't necessarily mean that Apple won't enter the hardcore market some day. After all, it's all up to the developers and game studios, and with everything merging into the living room, it's a real possibility.
mayanksinghal 15y ago
I definitely agree. Casual gaming has its place, but hardcore gamers and consoles have a market that is no way threatened by gaming on portable devices. While, Angry birds and Zynga brought large sections of population into gaming, their involvement in hardcore gaming is still minimal. I will possibly be downvoted for this, but the amount of research that has been contributed by hardcore game development companies far surpasses the amount that casual game developers have produced. There is a visible differentiator between the two segments of gaming - and it will probably always be there.
- aapl 15y ago
  Mobile and online casual games have been pulling in very impressive profits for the last 3-4 years while many companies have seen console and PC retail profits decrease in the same period. The demand for hardcore games isn't being threatened but the supply might face harder competition for funds with casual games now. "Might" as in I don't know how these AAA game publishers are organised internally. If the console division of Capcom sees decreased profits while the mobile division sees increased profits [1], does that mean that people and capital can get reallocated from the console division to the mobile division? [1] http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/26/non-mobile-capcom-profits-smurfed-up-in-first-half-of-fiscal-yea/ http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/26/non-mobile-capcom-profits-...

rzbn 15y ago

thats like saying the future of watching movies is watching youtube on mobile devices. Hardcore games are not going anywhere. But casual games will be played more.

vacri 15y ago

Patent nonsense. The future of gaming is not AAA titles that play out on a 3" screen. Maybe for casual gaming, but not for the big stuff.

vacri 15y ago
Why the hell is rzbn's comment below dead and mine just above is upmodded? They're saying the same thing. Modding on HN is bizzare and fickle

talmand 15y ago

Well, I'm a PC gamer and I have to say that I cannot possibly see myself playing the majority of the games I play now on a phone with no solid control scheme and a 4" screen. Touch screens do not play well with non-casual games. I've tried some of the cute RTS games available for my Android phone and they're practically unplayable because my finger obscures my view of the screen. Now, if you're saying that at some point in the future I'll be using my phone for gaming by plugging it into my TV via HDMI and using a keyboard/mouse combo via USB or Bluetooth, then sure. But at that point it's no different than what I'm doing now.