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Sometimes, folks, you just have to be in awe of technology. On April 3, Apple will launch a device that's even larger than the DSi XL and yet so conveniently tuned to our impulsive consumerism. Sure, at first, and perhaps well into the iPad's life cycle, most of the games compatible with the device will be designed for a much smaller screen -- but they're just 99 cents!

The goal isn't to achieve the best portable gaming experience on the market -- no! It's to amass the biggest gaming collection possible. For $699, you'll get 64GB of iPad to jam-pack with games. Hundreds of them! Trust us, your friends will be jealous (until Apple's next innovation is unveiled).

The iPad will be released to US retail on Saturday, April 3 in 3 models: 16GB, WiFi-only ($499); 32GB, WiFi-only ($599); and 64GB, WiFi-only ($699). The WiFi-only models will be available for pre-order beginning March 12, and the 3G versions will be released later in April when the iPad also launches in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Check out Engadget's coverage for more details.

*Okay, the "known" universe. Who knows what's really out there ...

Having put to bed a past with Rockstar Leeds -- and helping to turn out a laundry list of triple-A titles, including the portable Grand Theft Autos, while working there -- lead engineer turned studio director Lee Hutchinson and soon to be ex-lead programmer Matt Shepcar recently announced their new development studio: Double 11. Like so many other game devs these days, the two grew tired of big-budget projects with huge staffs, leaving in favor of creating their own smaller, mobile titles. "Our small size also means that every single team member is of paramount importance to their success or failure," the pair told Joystiq in an interview this afternoon.

That isn't to say that the two have any complaints with Rockstar relating to the recent quality of life allegations. "We had a great time working at the Leeds studio and there are a lot of really talented people there," they told us. Hutchinson further expanded on his time at Rockstar to Develop. "Rockstar Leeds and the spouse allegations had no effect on our decisions to leave." In fact, we asked the two how they'd feel about working with Rockstar again in the future, and they told us, "We'd love to work with Rockstar again ... our split was very amicable and we hope Gordon [Hall] would consider working with us again in the future."

To find out more about the studio's plans -- including a prospective Summer release for the its first game and where we might find said game, not to mention an explanation of the "Double 11" name -- join us past the break.

Activision co-founder David Crane knows a thing or two about profitable business ventures. In addition to helping one of the most lucrative gaming industry juggernauts get off the ground, he (and business partner Garry Kitchen) founded a successful iPhone app publisher named Skyworks. (You know, of Spill Da' Milk fame?) Now -- for unknown reasons -- the two men are starting up yet another iPhone publishing firm, this time titled AppStar Games. It's unclear whether the duo have left their posts at Skyworks, though the company's contact page no longer mentions their involvement with the studio.

According to a press release, the new studio will focus its efforts on "the booming market for 'small footprint' gaming across a diverse field of devices, including smartphones, wireless tablets and handheld console devices." We're not sure you can call anything on the iPad "small footprint," guys. At the very least, we'd say it's comparable to an average-sized loafer.

[Via Develop Online]

According to statistics compiled by mobile industry analysis firm Flurry, new development projects for the iPhone "exploded" during the month of January. The number of new projects during the first month of 2010 more than tripled the total for December -- an upswing which Flurry's "Smartphone Industry Pulse" report chalks up to excitement over the announcement of the Big and Tall model of Apple's multitouch device, the iPad.

In fact, that excitement was so palpable that it managed to reverse an upward trend for Android app development, as seen in this graph. Perhaps this trend could be re-reversed -- if only Motorola would introduce a mobile device that's roughly the size of a baking sheet.

[Via IndustryGamers]

Are you ready for the upcoming revolution (in approximately three years), when Apple's iPad begins to deliver on the "magical" capabilities that Steve Jobs promised not so long ago? We're not exactly on board yet either, but PopCap's co-founder John Vechey believes that we should be prepared for such a possibility. In speaking with Eurogamer, he says, "The iPad's important, but I think it's going to be more important in three years ... it's probably going to take the second generation to make it really, like, 'Wow!'"

Before addressing gaming, he admits, "This is my opinion ... it's not like it has a magical set of features, just a great package." His perception is that the device will be perfect for both children and ... his mom? "Because she can't screw it up, she can't download a bunch of stuff ... that's the perfect mum computer, right?" (We're inclined to agree with Vechey's claim, for the record.) It's also a question of accessibility though, he says. "Here's this new device that gets to more people with a really great e-commerce model attached to it ... it's really easy to buy on the iPhone -- that's part of what makes it successful."

And yes, like PopCap's Andrew Stein told us earlier this year, Vechey reaffirms the developer's interest in games being re-developed for the iPad. "I don't know if this is a PopCap position or my word, but we're certainly going to support it -- I want to play Plants vs. Zombies on that." In the meantime, we'll be playing PvZ on our iPhone while waiting for that (and the revolution).

Remember back in late January when the world was all abuzz with iPad news and, more specifically, we named a handful of game genres we'd like to see on the upcoming tablet? If our spidey sense is functioning correctly, the recent announce of "Gender Wars: The Battle" -- a "turn-based tactic game" (read: RTS) -- seems to indicate Last Flight devs Bloober Team are avid Joystiq readers (obviously BT got its ideas from our post -- don't be so foolish!).

The game (as described by lead designer Peter Bielatowicz) is intended to be "easy to pick up and play" with what sounds like paired down tactical commands for "casual players." Producer Piotr Babieno explains the iPad development focus by saying, "We believe that tactic games will be one of [the] best and most successful games on [the] iPad platform." He also notes that the game will be released at a "very low price" to entice players to get hooked on the "series" and prepare them for future "Gender Wars" titles. And no, neither Beilatowicz or Babieno explain why it's called Gender Wars, but we'll hopefully find out when the game releases this March alongside Apple's new device.

When we saw the iPad at Apple's less-than-exciting unveiling event, we noted that the upscaling on iPhone games was a bit blurry. But, hey, we're no certified graphicsologists or anything. Luckily, Kevin Ng is, and through the help of the iPad SDK, he's compared the appearance of his game WordCrasher running on the device in several ways: at native iPhone resolution; using the iPad's zoomed-in "2X mode" and -- through a little bit of tweaking with the SDK -- full iPad resolution.

His results in running WordCrasher at native iPhone resolution and in "2X mode" pretty much mirrored our own observations: standard and pretty ugly, respectively. When blowing up the iPhone version's graphics on the iPad, jaggies became prominent and it was a pretty ugly experience overall. However, when Ng rolled up his sleeves and started fiddling around, he found that tweaking his game to run at the iPad's native 1024X768 resolution helped create some strong visuals.

Ng credits the device's support of OpenGL ES 2.0, which allowed him to "use bump maps and other shader techniques to present more realistic materials." Again, we're not graphicsticians (see? we can't even get the term right!), but it seems like the initial cries at the device's inability to make teh purty pics may have been a bit unfounded.

[Via Wired]

Yep, it says it all right there in the headline, folks. Gameloft swiftly took $122 million from consumers in 2009, roughly equating to 15 million digital copies of DSiWare Oregon Trail. Alright, alright, the digital distribution-based publishers probably sold some of its other games too, we guess -- mobile games (in general) represented a whopping 94 percent of the company's sales in 2009. And despite our voracious habit for mobile games here at Joystiq, North Americans were second place in terms of worldwide sales at 32 percent, with Europeans leading at 39 percent and the rest of the world trailing at 27 percent. Good luck catching up, rest of the world!

And yes, even amidst the global economic recession, Gameloft predicted "further growth in 2010 in terms of revenue and profitability." The publisher also pointed out its strong position in the long term, saying it will "benefit from the rapid emergence of digitally distributed video games on mobile phones, tablets, consoles, and from major technological innovations." You catch that tablet reference in there? Yeah, we did too. Hey, it's 2010, right? The future. We're in it.

THQ announced a bit of restructuring today, which means, sadly, layoffs. The publisher announced that it's refocusing Juiced developer Juice Games and MX vs. ATV/Deadly Creatures developer Rainbow Studios for content intended for digital distribution. The studios will be renamed THQ Digital Studios Warrington and THQ Digital Studios Phoenix, respectively. About 60 total staff are being laid off as part of this restructuring. Juice Games was already subject to layoffs in late 2008.

The studios will develop games for "all major digital platforms, including Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iPhone and iPad" -- so much for WiiWare and DSiWare -- and will also work together on a community platform to be used across THQ's lineup of core games.

We've already heard from Nintendo's Satoru Iwata on Apple's most recent handheld (spoilers: he doesn't care about it), but the Wall Street Journal recently asked Sony's John Koller how his company's reacting to the device. Rather than outright dismissing it like the Nintendo prez, though, he said he's looking to the iPad for boosted PSP sales. Seriously.

"Apple's entrance into the portable gaming space has been a net positive for Sony ... when people want a deeper, richer console, they start playing on a PSP." In fairness, it's part of Koller's job to rep Sony in these situations, but it's not exactly impossible to argue with his logic in this case -- as the WSJ points out, sales of the PSP have "nearly tripled" since June 2007 (when the iPhone first launched). This would normally be the point where we point out other mitigating factors in year-over-year sales increases (say, games like God of War: Chains of Olympus and GTA: Chinatown Wars coming out, or a new console iteration being released), but we'll leave the comments section below to handle that.

Sure, it might resemble a large iPod Touch to some of us, but to the folks who get paid the big bucks to make games -- such as Epic Games VP Mark Rein -- the iPad looks like opportunity. Speaking to Gamasutra at this week's big unveiling event, Rein said "I really like the device and I think it's going to be great for gaming." And considering his company's Unreal Engine 3 is popping textures in and out of view on the iPhone already, it's no surprise that he said it's a "pretty safe assumption" to bet that the engine will make its way to the iPad.

Like the iPhone game developers we spoke with yesterday (and our own wishes for what we'd like to see on the device), Rein hopes that devs will "take advantage of the differentiated form factor of the device." And hey, with all that extra screen space, we have to imagine that at least a quarter of Marcus Fenix's enormous husk is now able to fit into view! It's called innovation, folks, ya dig?

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has registered his apparent disinterest in two recent technological innovations. First, Iwata dismissed Apple's iPad, a potential DSi XL competitor. "It's just a bigger iPod Touch," he said of the big iPod Touch unveiled this week.

As for 3D gaming, which was all the rage at CES, "I have doubts whether people will be wearing glasses to play games at home," Iwata told the Associated Press, "How is that going to look to other people?'' Can you imagine standing on a board and flapping your arms like a giant bird -- with glasses on? Humiliating.

Iwata offered few hints as to what new technology would be adopted by Nintendo, saying only that there was some form of new hardware in the works. Additionally, he seemingly denied previous "speculation" about the reported features of a new Nintendo handheld. "I question whether those features would be enough to get people to buy new machines," Iwata said, referring to the possible addition of a motion sensor to a new handheld.

According to Mac|Life, Telltale will begin supporting the Mac platform starting on Febrary 8 with Tales of Monkey Island -- and, as what can only be described as a great idea, gamers will be able to download both the Mac and PC versions of Telltale's games for one price. In other words, you won't have to worry about which version you buy, because you'll be getting both. Tales of Monkey Island is to be the first title to receive Mac support, with Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit and Strong Bad to follow (supposedly in that order, by the way). Both seasons of Sam & Max should arrive within "several weeks" of Tales of Monkey Island, with the others arriving in the following months, the site writes.

The report also mentions that Telltale plans to convert its entire catalog -- with the exception of Bone and Texas Hold 'Em -- according to Mac|Life. Its Telltale source declined to confirm if ports are on their way to the iPhone or iPad as well, though he did reiterate Telltale's desire to expand to as many platforms as possible.

When reached for comment by Joystiq, a Telltale representative called the report "totally unconfirmed," adding that potential iPhone or iPad support is "total speculation" at this point. According to the Mac|Life report, Telltale will be showing off its Mac titles at the Macworld Expo on February 11, so you can bet we'll be stopping by to find out.

With yesterday's announcement from Apple of its much hyped "latest creation" -- the iPad -- and the news that already existing iPhone applications (that means games too, folks) will be playable on the device, we started wondering how the developers of the world felt about this shiny new piece of gadgetry. So we asked a handful of our favorites -- Canabalt's Adam "Atomic" Saltsman, Pocket God's Dave Castelnuovo, and PopCap's Andrew Stein, just to namedrop a few -- to give us their reactions.

"It's hard to say anything concrete without actually playing with the thing personally, but I'm optimistic about it continuing to open up video games to even more 'normal' people," Saltsman told us. "I'm hopeful that having a big multitouch space will help mediate the whole 'fat fingers on a tiny screen' problem." PopCap's Andrew Stein agreed, telling us "We'll certainly look at the unique capabilities of the iPad and work hard to utilize those in instances where they can make our games even more fun."

Republic of Fun prez Mike Rasmussen sees things a bit differently, noting the opportunity in the upped horsepower of the device. "From a pure gaming perspective, I'm excited about the additional resolution and horsepower, and really interested to start understanding the 3D performance of the A4 [chip]." But even the most successful app developer on the market -- Pocket God creator Dave Castelnuovo -- seems a bit reticent of the iPad, telling us he sees "a lot of potential with the device," but his company is going to "wait to see what kind of acceptance the tablet will have" before moving forward with development.

But that's not all! See the full reactions from a variety of iPhone game developers after the break.

Developer Firemint is one of the first iPhone devs (though not the first!) to announce an upgraded version of an iPhone game for Apple's new iPad tablet thingy -- specifically, its two-million-selling action/strategy/air traffic control game, Flight Control. The developer announced that it will release an "optimised and re-imagined version of Flight Control" for the iPad. A DSiWare version is also expected to release at some unspecified time, though this announcement didn't mention it.

Though no concrete information about what the re-imaginings would be for iPad -- beyond imagining it on a bigger screen -- it sounds like Firemint anticipated porting the game up. "We are already building our next generation of games for higher definition, more powerful devices than are available today," Firemint said in its press release. "We like to imagine what the devices of tomorrow will be capable of, and invest in bringing our games to the next generation of hardware."

[Via Mobile-Ent]