I wouldn't say perfect... You're missing physical buttons for one

Looks interesting I gotta say.  High resolution display, and an addition of a Gyroscope for enhanced motion control, much like the Wiimote with the MotionPlus addon.  The iPhone4 looks like a great device, but lets talk a bit about iPhone as a gaming platform, seeing Jobs’ grandiose claims today.

This was a pretty fun game. Screenshot from http://snipapp.com

Apple wanted to push the iPhone as a viable gaming platform and for the most part, it has been successful.  There are many developers and publishers releasing games for these devices.  It allows both big publishers and the smaller indie guys to have an equal chance at getting their games on the platform and sold to millions of users.  Whether its Need for Speed or Snip, they reach the same audience, and nobody really gets much better treatment than anyone else in the app store.  This is a really nice thing for smaller game developers as they’ll have an equal chance to be discovered, and the difference would be if they do more outside marketing than someone else, or have genuinely a better game than their brethren.

So, what makes this new iPhone4 interesting to me?

Well, two features really:  The front facing camera, and the Gyroscope.

As mentioned before, the Gyroscope allows for a greater degree of freedom in movement detection on the device.  In some ways, it is like the Wii Motion Plus addition to the Wiimote.  Basically this device now has full 3D motion sensing capability.  Yaw control being the most interesting.

Pitch, Yaw, and Roll motion. And now you know...

If you were to take your pre iPhone4 iPhone or mobile device, lay it flat on the table, and spin it around, nothing would happen.  The phone cannot detect this yaw motion.  With the addition of the gyro, it now can detect this form of motion.  This would add a lot of control options to future iPhone games.  The question to ask though, how useful would it be?

The most obvious thing I imagine would be a character/mech/vehicle customization screen where the controls for panning around the model is much more intuitive with the new gyro than if you tried without.  As of now, I don’t have any great ideas, but I’m sure I’ll think of something involving a muffin.

Oh look... a front facing camera

The front facing camera now is another interesting feature.  I imagine seeing more games that would allow you to take a picture of your face and align it on the character you’re playing as.  Or maybe a game that shows your face in a mirror when you stand in front of it.  It lends itself to many interesting possibilities.  Who knows, maybe Quantum Box will make one of these.

Of course, this device packs even more processing power into it, meaning we should see games with more advanced features, albeit at the expense of battery life I presume.  I do not forsee an influx of games that people consider to be “hardcore” as even I don’t believe that they really belong on a phone.  However, my opinion on that may change one day, so I won’t completely dismiss that.

PS9 is the Future!

What does the future of gaming on iOS4 and beyond look like?  It looks promising, though this is not just based on the new features announced today.  Millions of people want the iPhone and existing owners want the new one for various reasons.  It will have a huge market for applications and games, and many of these apps and games are spread via word of mouth.  It will thrive.  But I don’t see it taking over Nintendo in the handheld market anytime soon, or heck, at all, unless the iPhone manages  to do the impossible and get a Pokemon game.

Although, since Farmville is coming to the iPhone, I think that will satisfy most of Apple’s target audience…