The future is here. Again.
Today Apple unveiled the features OS4.0 will be bringing to the iPhone and iPad operating system and to say they exceeded expectations would be an incredible understatement. Functionality like multitasking, folders for your apps and iBooks are all well and good but as gamers how are we going to be affected by these changes? Read on for our comprehensive breakdown and analysis.
Multitasking Will Prevent Progress Loss In Your Games
Picture the scene: You’re ninety percent of the way through the last level of your most recent iPhone game. You’re on edge at this point, the level is tough and you’ve saved your last health pack until the absolute last moment to ensure victory then… your phone rings. Your game closes itself and the grinning mug of your mate Steve is staring back at you. As you answer the phone the grim reality sets in; you’re going to have to restart that level and do it all over again.
With OS4.0 this problem should be a thing of the past thanks to the new multitasking functionality which allows 3rd party apps to be effectively paused and then moved to one side while you use a different function of the iPhone. It’s been a long time coming, but Jobs and co are convinced they have found a solution that won’t decimate the battery life of the device so that’s a big thumbs up from us.
Hopefully the inclusion of multitasking will prevent loss of progress when playing core games.
Game Center Will Bring Xbox Live Style Community To iPhone Gaming
It’s probably fair to say we’ve all tried out at least one of the third party gaming networks that currently exist, be it Open Feint or Chillingo’s Crystal platform, and they’ve served us fairly well. Until now that is. Apple have decided to throw their hat into the ring, a hat that we expect will devastate all of the third party platforms right from the off. Game Center (will it be Game Centre here in the UK?) looks to bring Xbox Live style functionality to all iPhone games with one single unified platform and profile. Apple’s social gaming network will include things like friends lists, matchmaking, leader boards and even its own achievement system.
Seems like we could all be kissing goodbye to the social gaming networks we currently use.
At the announcement event one attendee asked…
Q: Will the social gaming network from Apple supplant all the social gaming networks already available? And what will Apple do different?
A: The problem was there are a bunch of different social networks out there. So the goal was to build it into the platform, and everyone can be on the same gaming platform. We expect developers will build this into their games because they’ll have a wider audience.
So it sounds like the existing gaming networks days are numbered then!
Expect iAds To Materialise Across Many ‘Free To Play’ Games
Okay it’s pretty hard to get excited about ads but let’s give it a bash shall we? No? Okay well we’ll at least present you with the facts. Free iPhone apps are big business in the App Store and while some use micro-transactions to turn a profit (a model adopted most notably by Ngmoco) many prefer to include some form of advertising. Up until today these ads have never gotten more elaborate than small banner ads but now Apple has introduced their iAd mobile advertising platform expect to see much richer and interactive advertising in free games. Provided these ads don’t become too intrusive and expansions and interactions are always user initiated this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. If anything expect to see small advergames built right into the ads within your free games!
Page 1 of 1
2 comments
Prescription Meds / 6th Jun 2010
Exceptional site, where did you come up with the knowledge in this piece of writing? I'm happy I found it though, ill be checking back soon to see what other articles you have.
Tiago Costa / 12th Apr 2010
You forgot to talk about one new functionality... Accelerate: Gain access to a cookbook of hundreds of industry-standard mathematical functions optimized for iPhone and iPod touch, including functions for performing vector and matrix factorizations, multiplying arrays of large integers and computing simultaneous linear equations. This new API will allow programmers to use "math-related" functions optimized for iPhone. This new functions will improve the quality and performance of 3D games.