JULY 30, 2008 • Jumping into iPhone publishing, id Software has two titles in development for the popular cell phone. The first game is a version of the existing Doom 2 for mobile phones. The second title is an iPhone-specific project called Wolfenstein RPG.
Impact: Apple reported that the new iPhone 3G sold over 1 million units in the first three days after its July release. It took 74 days for the first iPhone to reach that mark. Clearly there is a lot of buzz about the iPhone’s potential as it starts to become ubiquitous in well-heeled metro centers. However, we caution that the game business on the iPhone is, and likely will remain, relatively modest. In the end, the iPhone is just another cell phone and is subject to the limitations of the mobile phone business. To date, hundreds of millions of cell phones are installed around the globe, but the money to be made from any one specific application is limited. Keeping costs as low as possible is the key to profitability in this segment.
