During its press conference yesterday, Apple made quite a bold claim, indirectly pooping on Nintendo and Sony by calling the iPod Touch the most popular portable gaming device in the world. It said this as it underwhelmingly announced a white variant of the machine.
"Not only is it the most popular music player in the world, but we're excited to announce it's now also the most popular portable game player in the world," boasted Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Cook had no numbers backing him up, but I've little doubt that the iPod Touch is doing tremendously well. Whether it's selling to people on the strength of its gaming capability, however, is going to be tough to prove.
That said, I bought my iPod Touch specifically for gaming, and it has served me very well. I even use it more than my 3DS and PSP.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
11:00 AM on 10.05.2011 | 
Nintendo is stronger than ever jim, didnt you know that?
-Stealth
I never really brag about my games by saying they're the most popular; or music, movies, etc. For me, it's about the quality of content. Apple is dead last there.
The iPod Touch is not a phone.
The iPod Touch isn't a phone.
To be fair I probably game more ony iPhone these days than my consoles, purely down to the fact I work to fucking much and my commute is a pain in the balls.Apple wins by default.
"Popularity" is always a nebulous and vague concept only made worse by the fact that different laws can/will restrict one product but not another. China lets Apple sell the iPod Touch just fine but Nintendo has to sell the gimped "iQue 3DS". Fair comparison?
but that's apple spreading delusions for marketing scheme, being popular it doesn't mean it's better.
and i bet its also the most used device on a toilet.
man i feel so out of touch with anything i get into. i love video games, but have no favorites series or developer. i dont care for portables or smaller "just because" type games on phones etc. yet i won about 300 games from nes-ps3.
i rarely listen to music. i actually drive around with my car radio off sometimes. and have no favorite band. i use my cell phone as a phone and camera. and almost nothing else. no music or games really.
im a photographer, but could care less about all the new tech that comes out.
sports are ok , but id rather play them then watch it on tv yelling at the screen like its gonna make a difference. like im some sorta "special teams" guy who thinks the team owes me something. ITS MY TEAM! i think fans of anything are ridiculous to be honest.
beatles - just a band
bethesda- just a developer
yankees- just a team.
SoTC - just a game.
@Kirby yeah those games on the app store ARE games, when video games first started, developers would only dream about being about to make games like what's on the app store now, but now it's a reality. But people only see them as "throwaway" games because they only cost a few bucks.
and just because playing those games may be "pointless" to you doesn't mean it may be pointless to anyone else, that can actually be said for ANY game.
But wouldn't by the same standards a laptop computer be the most popular portable game system?
...or a Nokia phone?
Just because an all-in-one devices is good at many things doesn't mean its specialized for the task in question.
Do you turn to a Swiss Army Knife for cutting up some carrots or a proper knife?
Do Fighter and Monk reaaaally want Red Mage to do the healing or someone dedicated to the job and not distracted by his sword and black magic? White Mage it is!
Ask any photographer what they use to take pictures - its not an iPod Touch. Not by a long shot.
I want a Kindle Fire. I don't give a rat's ass about it being able to play games. That's not why I want one, I have specialized devices that cover that and do it better.
If Angry Birds is good enough for someone, that's fine, but you have that and I'll have my Zeldas and Persona games.
Thats pretty gay!
They're probably counting every single iPod Touch that ANYONE has EVER played a round of Whogizits+ on as a gaming device. What does that actually mean, though? Damned if I know, but I still have no interest in owning one.
My niece plays Angry Birds on her phone. I intend to play KillZone on my PS Vita. They're both games, but neither one of us wants to play what the other one is playing, so what does it matter?
Apple's claims really, for the most part, have very little to do with Sony or Nintendo.
If I had to guess, I'd say maybe this means tge iPod touch has sold more units than the DS?
Maybe they generated more software revenue on the iPod touch vs. what Nintendo did last year?
Either way, I have an iPod touch and I'm quite happy with it. It proves itself more useful everyday. It's also been my most used handheld gaming device.
If the PS3 can be called a blu-ray player than I have no problem calling the iPod touch a portable gaming device. I don't see Sony bitching about millions upon millions of PS3's sold as blu-ray movie players during the PS3's first couple years on the market. I know people with a PS3 that've never even played a game on it.
Last I heard, earlier this year in April was, that the iPod Touch was only at 60 million units sold, so to get to 150 million only a few months later, sounds a bit unrealistic to me. Essentially considering that it took them since 2007, to get to 60 million. So I severely doubt that they sold over double that amount, in only a few months. I call total BS on these claims!
http://www.cultofmac.com/91020/4-million-ipads-sold-since-december-60-million-ipod-touches-sold-since-2007/
(apple tv doesnt suck because it can be modded to use xbmc) and is unlike almost all other apple products not overpriced
In logic, an argumentum ad populum (Latin for "appeal to the people") is a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or most people believe it; it alleges: "If many believe so, it is so."
What does it mean by popular? Why does it matter that it's popular? How does popularity directly correlate to quality?
Yeah, that's true, that can be said about any game. Actually that can be said about anything, because it's totally subjective.
"When video games first started, developers would only dream about being about to make games like what's on the app store now".
That's true too, but only if you're talking about early Atari games. In terms of gameplay depth, most of the games from app store and Android market are on that level and there is nothing wrong with that. I just hate seeing people staring in their iPods/iPhones all the time. To me it looks like they've got their heads up their asses, it's almost tragic sometimes.
And I hate when people are buying into that obvious bullshit they hear from corporate whores, politicians, church, it all makes me sad really. You might think that I'm way off topic here, but I'm not: all that scum feeds on trust in the exact same way actually.
Tim Cook here said that iPod touch is the most popular gaming device. Maybe that's true, but that's because people always loved wasting time on their sudokus, tetrises, tower defense games, peggles, zumas and whatnot. They just exploit that weakness, when people want to escape from reality and let their minds rest for unknown periods of time. Does that make it the best gaming device? No, so what's the point?
There are some very solid games, though I'm not sure of your definition of proper.
GameDev Story, GranPrix Story, Espgaluda II, infinity Gene, Battleheart, Infinity Blade are all pretty topnotch consolish romps.
Camelids is out there doing solid clone ups of various console genres.
Then there's the "time wasters", but some of those are righteous jn their simplicity. Mega Jump, Canabalt, Jetpack Joyride, League of Evil anne Blocks Cometh throwdown very well for being designed for super quick pick up and play.
Sony and Nintendo have to adapt to the way that Apple is selling games, or they won't be able to compete.
THAT.
I mean, there isn't anybody so unbelievably ignorant that they'd claim the iPod Touch is a better piece of hardware for handheld gaming. I mean, you'd just have to give up on calling yourself a gamer at that point. There's no way anybody is THAT stupid.
Right?
Please tell me nobody actually thinks that. I think I would ever be able to respect them ever again.
When is Dtoid going to introduce the ability to edit comments?
SCE has just sent out PS3 Remote Play Beta kit for devs, there are free to play PS Vita titles and SCE is readying for venues for titles like Killzone and (perhaps) even titles God of War to have a good platform for the Vita to be announced (i.e. Next E3, next TGS, etc). I doubt anyone outside of those that view Jim's posts would have really known or cared about an iOS game like IB2; people would just downloaded IB2 and treated it like any other app.
I seem to recall John Carmack stating PS Vita's gfx being "pretty pokey" a couple of years after and, anyone who sees the progress or knows the road map of the mobile processors knows that what Carmack said is indeed fact. The thing is, Apple demonstrating airplay and "Siri" under the same conference and placing IB2 to a couple of seconds of gameplay in between (the same conference) is not a good way of illustrating the point that Apple is taking gaming seriously. Without Apple taking things a lot more seriously in their distribution, promotion and advancement in the tech of mobile gaming, they will always fall second to Nintendo and Sony.
The things is people have a right to love handhelds not because they are regressive or bias but, because the mobile OS alternative has not established it self. The technology and business for games on mobile OS just is not there. For the forseeable future, only technology will be advancing mobile OS gaming. Tech like face trackingm better GPU and more interesting capacitive touch technology should all make mobile OS gaming more interesting. Still, the business side all I see is Apple annonucing "Siri 2.0" and an occasional news post from bloggers like Mr. Sterling.