Sony and Nintendo, Apple is eating your lunch

The new iPods were announced today and along with the new video enabled Nano, the iPod Touch has been given some extra grunt and a price drop. This means you can buy an 8GB iPod Touch for $268 in Australia and $199 in the US.

In Australia a PSP will set you back $279 and a DSi will cost you around $288. DS games range from $40 to $60, and PSP games, well good luck finding them :-)

And how much are iPhone games? Most of my 30 odd games I own on iPhone cost around $1.19. The most expensive game I bought was Monkey Island for $9.99 - cheaper than the PC version offered on Steam (which I believe is a very cheap version!). Compared to DS and PSP the cost is phenomenally cheaper.

And the the quality is incredible. I'm extremely happy with the games I play on my iPhone which include Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manner, Cluck It!, Monkey Island, Sneezies, Wild West and The Deep pinball, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, Mr. Driller, Peggle, Dungeon Defense and iDig It - just to name a few.

So, what does the new price point for iPod Touch mean? Well, as a parent I know what I'll be buying my kids for their portable gaming console.

An iPod Touch with a $30 iTunes gift card.

This gives them anywhere between 10 and 25 games and still works out cheaper than a DSi or PSP with a game. Plus it plays music and has loads of free games for when they spend all their credit :-)

I figure that if I, as a parent, am thinking this then there must be a whole lot of other parents with the same thought. If I was Sony or Nintendo I'd be a little worried right now.

www.passfieldgames.com