That iOS games are threatening the traditional mobile gaming market is no longer a surprise. Today, TiPb declared that iPhone games may very well be the platform’s “killer app.” And maybe there’s some truth to this, but let’s be honest: iOS games won’t stand ground with console giants for a couple simple reasons.

The hardware: it’s fragmented.

As much as we like to dismiss the Android platform realized (versus the platform in theory) because of how fragmented the operating system is, all mobile devices in this market are inherently fragmented on the hardware side. That’s because the big push is to drop a new, upgraded model into consumer’s hands every year, and that doesn’t work well for mobile gaming devices.

Consider that Nintendo’s Game Boy was on the market for 10 years before the Game Boy Color was released. It would be another three years before the Game Boy Advance, and three more before the Nintendo DS. When the Nintendo 3DS hits shelves, the DS will have been around for six years.

The other major mobile offering, Sony’s PSP, was released in 2004, and the PSP2 isn’t scheduled for release until Q4 2011 at the earliest. So despite minor hardware improvements, the platform itself will have been around for seven years.

Now look at iOS devices. Come next summer, we’ll be on the fifth-generation iPhone, with each year seeing speed improvements. It’s one thing for Apple to stop supporting the 2G iPhone three years after its release, but we’ve also seen Apple drop iOS features in the iPhone 3G a mere two years after its release. There are even games in the AppStore that recommend an iPhone 4 for maximizing one’s gaming experience.

In this respect, Apple’s iOS devices are more like PCs in the gaming front, with newer games making use of better and newer hardware. The console market, in the meantime, is all about maximizing the capabilities of older hardware, such that newer hardware could be pushed off for years to come. The mobile space, as much as we want to compare it to consoles, is really only a console in terms of usability, not hardware stability over time.

Granted, things may shift just as they have for the PC market, in which hardware growth has slowed tremendously. If Apple is really making more money long-term on the AppStore and iTunes than they are on hardware improvements, then they could afford not to refresh their hardware every year. But that means Android phones, and devices from other competitors, would similarly need to slow down their hardware rat-race.

The storage: it’s lacking.

Still related to hardware, iOS device storage isn’t great. For most apps, or even multimedia in general, the current storage offerings are sufficient. But when the typical FPS comes in at several GB, iOS users will be expected to have 4+ GB of storage space per blockbuster title, and that means space quickly begins to come at a premium unless users decide to only keep one or two games on their devices at a time.

That’s why games like the revered Infinity Blade and Rage 3D are on rails. Not giving players the ability to roam around freely means developers can put less “stuff” in each title, and that means less textures, levels, animations, et al. And sadly, that sucks, because it means that while the hardware can otherwise support pretty cutting edge graphics, the lack of storage is keeping the mobile gaming market from pushing ahead. If storage weren’t an issue, then we daresay that iOS gaming could challenge any current-gen console, even if the graphics aren’t quite up to snuff (see: Wii).

One interesting outcome of this limitation is that iOS may become the de facto standard for rail-based gaming. Perhaps for non-technical reasons, console-based RPGs became a genre very different from PC RPGs, and a similar genre-generating phenomenon may be forming around iOS right now.

The control scheme: it’s… different.

Touch-based gaming is great for a variety of titles, but it’s not always ideal compared to the haptic feedback one gets from a physical interface. While a degree of control-scheme complexity is possible with iOS, one has to wonder where the limits are. An MMO like World of Warcraft (WoW), for example, would be nigh impossible to emulate on the iPhone control-wise. And that means there will be major concessions in terms of genres of games that iOS will sport. Yes, there may still be hardcore games on iOS, but the platform is clearly better at fostering more casual games with less input requirements.

What can be done?

One of the simplest things developers can do is not push cutting edge graphics, so as not to limit their games to customers who have devices more than a year or two old. Look at WoW, a game released in 2004 that, even then, didn’t push the limits of cutting edge hardware, which can arguably be considered a major boon to its success. (Blizzard has done similar with its previous games, like Diablo 2.) This is in stark contrast to MMOs like Everquest 2 who were more graphics-intensive, thereby not selling as many titles to customers with older hardware.

Games like Minecraft are further examples of unique, expansive titles working well despite not having great graphics. (Intentionally retro stylings are hot right now, bdesides.) And really, while eye-candy is nice to impress, an Infinity Blade-like game with free-roaming controls is arguably more attractive with graphics not as sharp, than the game in its current iteration, which is almost more a proof-of-concept than anything else.

Yes, we know that recent iOS devices have the hardware capable to make audiences gawk at the graphics potential of iOS games, but maybe that’s not where developers should be focusing their efforts for now. Whether rail-based games are fun is not the issue: let’s not pigeon-hole games on iOS to such rigid confinements, even if such rigid confinements make for better eye candy.

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Despite Apple’s sordid foray into the video gaming market with the ill-fated Pippin, TUAW’s Mike Schramm believes that Apple is willing to give console gaming another go. His speculation is based in large part on a piece by Erik Sherman at BNET, in which Sherman notes various patents Apple filed, and various individuals Apple hired, as evidence of Apple’s gaming console initiative.

No TV console aspirations.

We’ll address Schramm first, by noting that an escapade into console-gaming-land would be a horribly poor move for Apple. Apple’s success with the iPod, and later the iPhone, was due to them being able to put a decently-priced but amazingly polished device into consumer’s hands. Before the iPod, mp3 players weren’t particularly notable aside from the fact that they existed at all. Apple pretty much defined the portable mp3 market, and arguably, created the mainstream movement towards legal mp3 downloads. With the iPhone, Apple entered a market densely packed with crappy phones, where even the best sported comparably poor user interfaces and little real online functionality. With the AppStore, Apple blew the doors open on downloadable content, and once again redefined a market, now being emulated by contenders.

The console market is nothing like the portable music or cell phone markets were before Apple got involved. The console market consist of only three key players, all of whom do a great job at building systems, and all of whom have significant industry backing in the form of third-party titles. Plus, all have an indy developer component, and significant mindshare among consumers.

That’s not to say that Apple couldn’t be successful by entering the console wars, but their timing would be way off. Releasing a console before circa 2013, when Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony will reveal their latest offerings, would be dooming an Apple console to irrelevance in only four years time. Furthermore, Apple would fight an uphill battle, akin to what Microsoft dealt with when they unveiled the original XBox. Only, Apple’s experience with the mainstream gaming market (Microsoft had years of experience dealing with PC gaming), is virtually null prior to the proliferation of iPhone games. Simply put, the console marketplace is too volatile a place for Apple to push itself into – the competition is too fierce, so why take an unnecessary risk? Apple is better suited to define a market with much less competition, and the handheld gaming market is a prime target.

The accidental success.

We’re not so sure that Apple expected to be successful with iPhone gaming. Surely, Apple expected to find games developed for the iPhone, but titles from big-name publishers using big-name IP? Maybe Apple even built the iPhone hardware to be capable of running games with decent graphics and framerates, but the very lack of input options makes us question Apple’s expectations that the iPhone might become a veritable Gameboy and PSP competitor. But here we are: leveraging the AppStore’s framework, the iPhone is able to market pretty amazing games via a convenient, cutting-edge distribution model, all for a much cheaper price than games released for the Gameboy or PSP. Like the proliferation of the Wii, iPhone gaming is build on a solid foundation of more casual titles, but as time goes on, we’re now seeing more and more “mature” titles requiring more of a user’s focus. It’s one thing for Apple to have given Mac gaming a mere head-nod in the past, it’s another for Apple to dismiss a clearly growing phenomenon. So, Apple will continue embracing iPhone gaming, and that’s at the heart of Sherman’s observations.

The acquisition of Bob Dreblin, Raka Koduri, Mark Papermaster, and Richard Teversham, might not even indicate Apple assembling a “dream team” for the iPhone gaming market, but let’s assume this to be true. Dreblin’s contribution to the Gamecube CPU may be most telling: the Gamecube was underpowered compared to offerings from Microsoft and Sony, but the thing was admittedly compact. If anything, the rest of the team would play into embedded gaming just as easily as they would in traditional console gaming, not to mention Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi and their investment in PowerVR. If Apple’s going to be serious about iPhone gaming, they’ll want to develop hardware specific for that purpose, especially since this kind of specialized hardware will still be able to power the thousands of non-gaming iPhone applications. By controlling the hardware supply chain specifically, Apple ensures that the competition won’t be building similar products, and furthermore, secures its hardware from additional vulnerabilities.

Sherman makes some good observations about Apple’s patent filings. If anything, it should be pretty clear that Apple is looking to link gaming and outside media. Much as iTunes can suggest music based on one’s existing music library, application 20080076495 proposes similar functionality, only rather than just making recommendations, games could identify appropriate music to play based on a user’s preference. For example, a scene in a game calling for fast-paced, action-packed combat, may query a user’s music library for metal or hard rock music, and based on the user’s ratings, will play a top song in that category. In other words, games will be minimally tailored to suit the user’s tastes based on other media they own. The patent application, at absolute minimum, forms an extension to the iTunes store, in that games may be recommended based on songs a user owns: lots of metal songs may mean a user prefers more action-oriented games, for instance.

The other patent applications Sherman identifies give further insight into Apple’s direction with iPhone games, but it should be pretty clear by now that Apple is looking at solidifying the iPhone game user-base. Arguably, Apple is already ahead of the game with their application distribution model, as Nintendo and Sony are now moving ahead with their own online stores. The difference is that the iPhone is a more flexible system, is nearly always connected to the internet, and meets an application price-point easily suited for growth. By the time the AppStore starts including games costing $20 or higher, the handheld gaming market will be a shitstorm of competition, because Apple will have become a major contender well before that, assuming the next iPhone version further advances a long-term gaming plan (and the 3GS appears to herald this). At that time, Nintendo and Sony better have stepped up their game, because unlike with the traditional console market, the handheld market is far more malleable, especially when the iPhone’s chief gaming success is drawing spontaneous buyers into a web of easily-accessible, easily-downloadable content.

So for those longing for an Apple console, look no further than your iPhone. While it’s already successfully integrated the iPod and cell phone, it’s now looking to devour your friendly neighborhood Gameboy, too.

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The PSP Giga-pack bundle, the main selling point of which is the 1GB memory card, is the premiere PSP bundle for gamers on the go. However, a 1GB memory card is not the greatest of solutions if one intends to travel with lots of homebrew content, or, more accurately, if one intends to travel with lots of music, movie, or game backup files.

As a child, for long car trips or the occasional airplane ride, I’d regularly travel with my notebook-sized Gameboy tote, which had enough room for the Gameboy, the enormous AC adapter/backup battery, and an assortment of eight or so cartridge games. This setup was pretty efficient at the time, but with the size of cartridges and their respective plastic containers, toting around a too much equipment, which constantly had to be juggled, could get rather annoying.

While games these days tend to come in smaller packages, there’s something to be said about “ripping” one’s games and storing them all on one device, such that one needn’t juggle game discs/cartridges. That’s partially the glory of the PSP homebrew “hack”, since one can backup their games to a memory stick. Unfortunately, with the size of PSP games, even the Giga-pack fails to deliver, as a 1GB memory stick won’t hold more than two games.

A recently advertised solution is the PSP Bank, a hard-drive that can store all of one’s gaming library, music, movies, and other applications. The PSP Bank does this without the need for a computer, such that one can browse files to copy over to the PSP’s memory card from the PSP Bank’s visual interface. The device need only be attached to the PSP while files are copied to or from the PSP.

While the PSP Bank isn’t widely available yet, its sale overseas isn’t discouraging in the Western world, because while the PSP Bank touts features that many PSP gamers may find new, the technology isn’t. Apacer, for example, offers drives with “On the Go” technology, which allows precisely the functionality of the PSP Bank.

While drives like these are solid buys for those who want to keep their PSP files close at hand when traveling, I’ll stick to traveling with my laptop, which lets me swap files with easy, and is always with me when I’m far away from home. For those who don’t have this luxury though, don’t bother waiting for the PSP Bank to hit Western shores, as your nearest computer retailer likely has a similar device already in stock.

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