With the cacophony of E3 2009 over and done with, here are some parting thoughts as well as an event gallery with which to remember the event:
–iPhone Development: The same conumdrum Mac gaming has always faced is back, but in a different format. While there are some great titles out there for the platform and it’s gotten easier to code games for the platform via the Intel architecture, it’s still questionable as to whether it’s worth the investment to write a title for the Mac (thereby helping to explain why Apple has never kept an official booth at E3).
This situation is flipped on its head when it comes to the iPhone and with an installed base numbering in the millions, a growing market and the App Store as the current king of online efficiency. The end result is a developer community that seems to be tripping over itself to write games for the iPhone and the iPod touch. Upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 features such as micropayments, Push Notification, Bluetooth multiplayer, improved networking and the like make the platform even more attractive and those who had seen prototypes for the new iPhone hardware didn’t seem disappointed in the least.
This isn’t quite the dream of hordes of developers rushing to create titles for the Mac (especially when there are more guaranteed profits with writing for Windows or the consoles), but the mobile gaming market is exploding, there are some great titles on the horizon and there are some great, affordable titles on the horizon.
–Yoostar: This one came out of nowhere and it was a bit odd to find it at a gaming expo, but Yoostar could be one of the best surprises of the year. Essentially your own green screen movie kit and retailing for US$169.95, the kit includes a webcam, portable green screen and software for Mac OS X and Windows that allows users to place themselves in given movie scenes as their character of choice. Clips can then be cleaned up and exported and the creators have negotiated continuous streams of new content, including clips from classic titles such as “Rocky”, various NBA games, Children’s Televisions Workshop (creators of “Sesame Street”) and memorable commercials.
There’s something potentially great here and it’ll be interesting to see how this sells during the holidays, especially if it hits the right price point as a digital gift.
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