There used to be a time when gamers couldn't care less about mobile games and non-gamer cell phone owners were never tempted, but those days are over. In fact, Capcom thinks mobile games may start to overpower other dedicated handheld systems.
Above: A sampling of Capcom's many iPhone games
"The casual gamer that used to play on the PC and the hardcore gamer that used to play on a dedicated gaming portable now plays on their smartphone," said Capcom Interactive president Midori Yuasa in a recent interview.
But moreover, where Capcom sees the most excitement is in the fact that iPhones and Android phones are "universal" devices. People who don't play video games still have them, and if it's possible to attract that crowd, there's a lot of potential.
Yuasa called the iPhone "extremely important to Capcom," saying it's "like no device before."
There's still a problem, though. Some people who own iPhones tend to think if a game is more than 99 cents, it's too expensive. You can't really make a whole lot of money off of $1 games. Then again, throw in a whole lot of DLC and you can start extracting batches of five dollar bills out of users' wallets before they know what hit them.
Regardless of the current financial standing in the mobile market, Capcom sees it as the one for the most growth. It's good to see such major publishers start showing deep interest in the emerging platform. But without an actual controller, can something like the iPhone really outweigh the 3DS and PSP2? Probably not...
Jan 21, 2011
Source:MCV
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