Apple’s “It’s Only Rock and Roll” event wrapped up this morning, and quite a bit of gaming news came out of it. No Apple tablet, though. We’ve broken down the gaming news for you here:
Apple is pushing the iPod Touch as a gaming device even harder now, putting it up against the PSP and DS. In fact, they called out the competitors, saying that they cost too much and don’t support multitouch. Apple compared title availability between the three platforms:
- DS/DSi: 3,680 titles
- PSP: 607 titles
- iPhone/iPod Touch: 21,178
A new 64gb iPod Touch is coming for $399, and it will support the faster OpenGL ES processing that the iPhone 3GS does for your less frame-y gaming pleasure. Also, the 8gb has been dropped to $199 for a cheap, easy entryway into iPhone gaming.
As for titles, Assassin’s Creed 2 was a showcase game. It’s a side-scrolling game that will launch on the same day as its console counterparts. In it, you’ll be able to use your iPhone camera to put your face in the in-game wanted posters. Another big title was EA’s Madden NFL 2010, which uses an on-screen analog stick to provide control just like its console counterparts. Also notable was Gameloft’s first-person shooter Nova, which many of the livebloggers said looks a lot like Halo.
Quick commentary: It’s nice to see that Apple is stepping up their gaming game, though the PSP and DS call out was kind of weird. Quantity over quality isn’t something you want to brag about, Apple.
