5 ms·

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

by 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.

by moomin 15y ago

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.