Cellphone game makers ring the changes

Tetsuya Ide doesn't own an iPhone, but the teenage computer boffin is betting that Apple's hit gadget is the key to having a new generation of video game players in the palm of his hand.

He's not the only one. Video game console titans Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are facing growing competition from the increasing popularity of games played on mobile telephones or Internet-enabled gizmos.

"A game's creativity used to depend on the hardware," said Ide, a 19-year-old computer programming student who is developing an iPhone game as part of his studies.

"A successful game now is one that's simple and reaches a wide network of people," he told AFP at last weekend's Tokyo Game Show.

Major industry players have also begun to recognize the potential of smartphones as a springboard to reach casual gamers, due to the runaway popularity of the iPhone and iPod Touch, both of which debuted two years ago.

Of the 758 software titles on display at this year's Tokyo Game Show, 168 were designed for mobile telephones - twice as many as last year.

"Cellphones are a very promising platform," said Kazumi Kitaue, chief executive of Konami Digital Entertainment, publisher of video games including the Metal Gear and Silent Hill series.

"The appeal is that everyone owns one. A family with three children may have one PlayStation 3, but three cellphones with which they can download and play games," he said.

Making games for mobile phones also enables developers to reduce costs in the face of the worst global economic downturn in decades.

"They won't have to spend a great deal of money and effort developing new software," said Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Enterbrain Inc., a video game magazine publisher.

"We saw the iPhone as a threat in the beginning. But since the same device is used all over the world there is greater opportunity for a bigger market," said Mitsuru Oshibo, a content developer with the firm.

Bigger game developers are feeling the pressure as smartphones threaten to sap the industry's traditional source of revenue from sales of games for consoles such as the PS3, the Xbox 360 or Nintendo's Wii.

Apple boasts hundreds of thousands of applications in its App Store, some of which are priced at less than one dollar.

Competition among hardware makers is heating up. Apple this month introduced a revamped version of the iPod Touch, with founder Steve Jobs calling it a "great game machine."