Thursday, September 10, 2009

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

7 comments:

Unknown said...

You're spot on the money there John. My kids love the childrens games on my iPhone - the touch screen is so intuitive even my 2 year old has no problems with it (my wife, on the other hand...). The main detractor for me, as a parent, buying a DS or a PSP is simply the cost of the games. Why would I pay $45 for something of dubious quality when I can get something similar for $1.19?

Passfield Games said...

And there are so many cool games for toddlers on the iPhone - who would have thought there was a market?

What They Play did a nice article on a few choice ones: http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2009/08/11/iphone-apps-for-toddlers/

Again, the most expensive ones are around $2.50 Australian. Cheaper than a coffee and keeps the kids entertained when you're out and about.

Matthew said...

I picked up a 32GB Ipod Touch that day (happened to be in Melbourne when they hit the stores). I've been beyond impressed with the unit. I didn't like the games on them at ALL when the iPhones and iPod Touches first started appearing. And I find the App Store to be one of the scariest portals I've ever seen.

However, after spending a week trawling, it's clear that the good games "get found" by the websites, aggregators, or recommended by friends.

So - KlickTock is now a member of the iPhone development program. Let's see how quickly I can get something good up and running! :)

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Anggun Jelita said...

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