There are 13,000 iPhone games now
by Justin McElroy 
{ Jul 8th 2009 at 12:00AM } 
Do you realize that the number of apps has doubled since March? Doubled. If the App Store continues that exponential rate of growth, games will outnumber humans in about 5 years, and you know what that means: Yep, Skynet.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ArchiGamer @ Jul 8th 2009 12:05AM
And yet 5% of those games are any good. :(
Premature ejaculation man @ Jul 8th 2009 12:06AM
I have a few, some fun time killing. I feel silly for bying doodlejump, but I keep playing it anyway ;p
Premature ejaculation man @ Jul 8th 2009 12:07AM
*buying. It was a typo, not a lack of edumacation I swear!
ArchiGamer @ Jul 8th 2009 12:09AM
Yeah, the only games I have for my iPod Touch are Vay, Toy Bot Dairies, and Dactyl. I can safely say those games are good, but we never enough for me to complete them though, especially Vay.
ArchiGamer @ Jul 8th 2009 12:10AM
Don't worry about the typo, all that "manhood" can get in the eyes and can....I think I'm going stop before it gets any dirtier.
Temple @ Jul 8th 2009 1:31AM
5%? You gotta be kidding. There aren't 650 good games on the iPhone. Most iPhone games are cheap rip-offs of other games or total shovelware.
I love my iPhone to death, and the apps are genuinely useful, but the gaming on it is a joke. I would say there are half-a-dozen to a dozen decent iPhone games. The rest aren't even worth the cheap price they charge for the games to begin with.
Nap @ Jul 8th 2009 2:40AM
Just got the iPhone yesterday. I got Toki Tori, Peggle, Tap Tap Revenge and Pac-Man Lite. The latter of the 2 being free came to $6 altogether, and they're all epic!
Hate on haterz
bluesky_v2.01 @ Jul 8th 2009 4:09AM
5%, are you kidding? More like 0.05%.
I've had an iPhone for a while now and I still haven't managed to find a game that can hold my attention for more than 3 minutes.
There are a ton of cute minigames but, like I said, they all get boring after a few minutes and just aren't worth the money the developers are asking for them.
iPhone will never replace my PSP or DS. It's not a gaming console despite Apple's best efforts to make it into one.
cozza99 @ Jul 8th 2009 5:54AM
So the iPhone/iPod Touch is the new Wii?
Premature ejaculation man @ Jul 8th 2009 12:05AM
Oh lawd. I cannot wait to hear about how much people hate iPhone/iPod Touch games are not classified as games.
PR0F3TA @ Jul 8th 2009 12:06AM
how many r quality games tho? mgs touch was great. now i cant wait for the duke
WINterfang @ Jul 8th 2009 12:09AM
Apple needs to do a Search Engine, I'm bored of google.
Anthology @ Jul 8th 2009 12:15AM
It would be overpriced and coating in glossy, web 2.0 layouts.
WINterfang @ Jul 8th 2009 12:21AM
You can't charge for Search engines unless your.....apple >_>.
Premature ejaculation man @ Jul 8th 2009 12:22AM
A revolutionary search engine! The worlds fastest! Using your our reinvented iPhone with an inbuilt internet communications device!
Presenting:
Cover flow search!
Who wants quick loading text when you can have 3d!?
ill trooper @ Jul 8th 2009 5:01AM
"You can't charge for Search engines unless your.....apple"
Unless my apple what? I can't stand the suspense out here. Tell me what my apple is going to do!
aReEeNeN @ Jul 8th 2009 12:20AM
IT'S OVER 9000!!!!
Tony Montana @ Jul 8th 2009 12:26AM
Hmm the real question is how much revenue is coming into the games industry from the iPhone.
Seems like the potential to be a lot but as long as its turning more people onto gaming and giving developers another revenue stream its something we can all celebrate.
The only thing that doesn't make a lot of sense is why some older generation games from the likes of SNES, PS1 and even PS2 haven't been ported.
The App Store allows them to sell ports directly to over a hundred million iPod Touch and iPhone owners. World of Goo would be nice on iPhone.
Cellien @ Jul 8th 2009 12:34AM
I can proudly say I have contributed to that app store growth! Finished a comic, recently approved.
Check it out here (auto-detecting iPhone site too): www.blackhivemedia.com
I have some friends w/ multiple games on the app store. They still don't make enough to quit their day job.
JDxUndeadX @ Jul 8th 2009 12:37AM
shitballs.
videonevin @ Jul 8th 2009 12:41AM
and as an iPhone owner I can tell you that there are at least 12,990 shitty iphone games.
Jesus (PSN: Luttdawg) @ Jul 8th 2009 1:26AM
As another iPhone owner I agree with you 100 per cent sir.
hobocop @ Jul 8th 2009 12:54AM
all you need is flight control and drop7
Ausohoj @ Jul 8th 2009 1:05AM
Hmm. and yet the only one i have no problem recommending is Pocket God. seriously, buy it. it is super fun, and awesome.
GoonieGooGoo @ Jul 8th 2009 1:25AM
that's a whole lot of shovelware
jack @ Jul 8th 2009 2:19AM
and as an iPhone owner I can tell you that there are at least 12,990 shitty iphone games.
http://www.chinalaptopstore.com/
ill trooper @ Jul 8th 2009 5:19AM
"I will copy another post and then paste my website on the end of it, it will look credible! I promise no one will notice."
You're so out, buddy.
Azariel_z @ Jul 8th 2009 3:37AM
Is the new shovelware king?
wienerdog @ Jul 8th 2009 3:42AM
As an iPhone user, I can tell you that there are tons of lousy games, just like there are tons of lousy PC, Wii, DS, PS2, SNES, Genesis and NES games. It's what happens when a platform hits a high adoption rate, every shitty developer wants an easy way to make some money.
There are GREAT iPhone games. I've got more iPhone games than I ever found PSP to buy. Aside from a number of decent ports, like Wolfenstein 3-D, Myst, Peggle (awesome), and others, there's Rolando and Rolando 2, Top Gun, Fieldrunners, MGS Touch, Zenonia, Apple's Texas Hold Em, Assassins Creed is supposed to be good, and that Zen puzzle game.
Even if 0.5% of the 13,000 games on the App Store are worth paying for, that's a lot of good games to buy in one year. Did the DS or PSP have that many in ONE YEAR?!
Stop with the Apple hate. More platforms and different game UI opens the door for creativity and something a little different. Lazy developers aren't unique to an Apple platform.
Reader @ Jul 8th 2009 5:07AM
The threshold for getting a game on the DS/PSP is far higher than getting one on the iPhone/iPod. I could write a game for a iPhone (though it'd be absolute shit). To get a game on the DS/PSP you have to have it approved, manufactured on UMD/Catridge, etc. Therefore you also have much higher costs. The cost to make an iPhone game can be zero, the cost to make a game for the DS/PSP will always be much much higher than zero.
ill trooper @ Jul 8th 2009 5:11AM
There are a lot of good games and it gets better every month. I think if you've already decided that "because there is a fart app, nothing else can be any good," you're just being naive.
FlightControl, GeoDefense, FieldRunners, Build-A-Lot, Tiger Woods, Backgammon, Scrabble, Sudoku, Zen Bound, MetalGear Touch, Katamari, AquaHoops, Trace, iDracula... These games have occupied a lot of my time. And I never bought Peggle, which is the default time-suck. Not to mention the fact that you can get a new game that will amuse you for a while for 99 cents. You can buy a game every day of the week at that price and not even mind if you only play a game for 20 minutes. It's not that serious, people.
crsh @ Jul 8th 2009 7:14AM
Erm, ok fine, 13k game titles are available for the iPhone/iPod Touch; what concerns me the most is how few of those games are ports of older titles, demos/micro versions put out to whore PC/console titles, and after all those there's a tiny little portion of actual original games (some of which are good, some are just plain bad).
Good enough for most, not exactly a stellar line-up, but better than nothing I guess.
Omen @ Jul 8th 2009 9:41AM
And not a single one worth buying.
benjamines @ Jul 8th 2009 7:37PM
Just 13,000 more reasons for me not to buy an iPhone.
manaman @ Jul 9th 2009 12:47AM
I don't know,
I've got about six pages of games which I actually keep on my iPod Touch and I keep them on there because I genuinely think they're good and enjoy playing them. There have been some games that I've bought that I didn't like and took off my device but for the most part the only games that come off of there are ones that were free to begin with and I thought I would take a chance on. If you want to find the good games, usually you'll have to shell out a couple bucks which just isn't the mindset of most iPhone/iPod Touch owners. Also, you have to be pretty discerning in the "free market" of the App Store.
Yes, many of the games are more mini-game-ish in nature, but that does fit the device. Don't discount the great games that really pull you in and keep you playing. Vay is still a great title to have on the iPod Touch (and I was very hesitant about getting it because of how dated the graphics looked and how much I tend to shy away from turn-based RPG's) not to mention some of the excellent racing games, flying games, arcade re-releases, shooters and platformers (especially Rolando, Jelly Car, Castle of Magic, iDracula, Peggle, Dig Dug Remix to name a few).
I agree that the iDevices won't replace my Nintendo DS, but mine sure compliments it well--especially when I'm just taking a short train ride and only want to slip one slim gadget into my shirt pocket and have some immediate and interruptible games on hand.
Just my two cents,
manaman