Game-Makers Rush The iPhone

Hot on the heels of Apple’s (AAPL) unveiling of an iPhone software development kit last week, game-makers are rushing to join Electronic Arts (ERTS) and Sega (SGAMY) in planning games for the coveted uber-device. Yesterday, mobile developer Gameloft (GLOFF) announced it was cooking up some 15 games for the iPhone for 2008. Game designers, it seems, have been chomping at the bit to create titles for Apple’s hot-selling phone.

Id Software’s legendary John Carmack also entered the fray, posting his company’s initial plans on Slashdot. “We have put in our application like everyone else,” he wrote, adding, “I don’t have any inside information at this point. I think Steve is still pissed at me over some negative comments I made about iPod development tools a while ago.”

Carmack also pointed out that – as far as marketing and distributing games is concerned – Apple’s plan to use the iTunes store to package and promote new software could be a major breakthrough for mobile games publishers. In other words, the iTunes store could provide a much more attractive billboard to trumpet new titles than currently exists. (Currently most mobile game stores are over-the-air or phone based, hard to navigate, constrained, and generally cumbersome.) He wrote, “This type of developer / customer interaction is probably the wave of the future for mobile devices, it will be interesting to see how quickly the other players can react. Based on our experiences with the carriers, I am betting not very quickly.”

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