iPhone News Updated

Video-Game Publishers Eager to See Apple’s Tablet

Publishers of “Pac-Man,” “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” and “Brick Breaker” say Apple Inc.’s new tablet has the potential to become a video-game platform and are already considering titles for it.

“If it’s got a great screen, some buttons, you can turn it on and it connects to the Internet, it’s got the ability to be a games machine,” said Peter Moore, president of sports games at Electronic Arts Inc., the second-largest game publisher.

The multimedia product may build on Apple’s success with iPhone and iPod Touch games and extend the industry’s expansion beyond consoles made by Microsoft Corp., Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. Apple’s App Store has sold more than 3 billion applications. In the store yesterday, the five bestsellers were games ranging from $2.99 to $9.99. U.S. sales of console games fell 9.8 percent in 2009, according to researcher NPD Group Inc.

Moore said what he knows about the device is from media reports. In addition to Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts, Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. and smaller companies such as Digital Chocolate and Ngmoco are trying to gauge the opportunities as they wait for the device.

“The center of gravity in gaming is moving away from the console to these other devices,” said Bart Decrem, chief executive officer of Palo Alto, California-based Tapulous, the maker of iPhone and iPod Touch games that have been downloaded more than 20 million times. “We’re going to wake up a year from now and see that this is a very important part of gaming.”

Apple plans to unveil the device tomorrow, a person with knowledge of the situation said this month. The person declined to be identified because the details are private.

More Gaming Fun

The tablet may improve on iPhone and iPod Touch games by providing a bigger screen, more processing power and better Internet connectivity that makes it easier to play with others, said Jon Kromrey, general manager of the Apple games group at Namco Networks America Inc., the Tokyo-based company’s U.S. unit. Namco, maker of “Pac-Man,” has had more than 23 million downloads from the App store.

“I’m having fun thinking about all the wonderful things we can do with the device when it’s announced,” said Kromrey, who was a designer for Apple until last year.

As a game platform, the tablet will compete against Nintendo’s DS and Sony’s PlayStation Portable.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose $1.22 to $204.30 at 10:03 a.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares more than doubled last year. Electronic Arts fell 7 cents to $16.76 after gaining 11 percent in 2009.

Mobile Game Growth

The tablet will build on a market for portable and mobile games that’s expected to grow to $11.7 billion by 2014 from $9.7 billion in 2009, according to researcher DFC Intelligence in San Diego. Sales of games for Nintendo’s DS and the Sony PSP will fall while those for Apple will rise, said David Cole, a DFC analyst. Even before reports of the tablet, DFC predicted the iPhone and iPod Touch would rise to 24 percent of portable game software.

The market for games on social networks including Facebook and News Corp.’s MySpace is projected to triple to $2 billion by 2012 from 2009, according to Atul Bagga, a San Francisco-based analyst with ThinkEquity LLC, an investment bank.

Apple’s device has an opportunity to take players from the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 because it’s likely to be used a lot in homes, said Simon Jeffery, chief publishing officer for Ngmoco, a maker of iPhone and iPod Touch games backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Games will have to be more complex and visually sophisticated than those for Apple’s smaller devices, he said.

“The game play needs to be more satisfactory and engaging,” said Jeffery, the former president of Sega America.

Non-console play is growing because people have less time and a $60 disc is increasingly difficult for some to justify, Moore said. An iPhone version of Electronic Arts’ “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” costs $4.99 and the company is introducing a browser- based version.

[Thanks: http://www.bloomberg.com]

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