Only a few years ago, bigger guns, badder enemies and louder explosives mattered most in video games.
Now, small is beautiful, and Apple Inc.'s iPhone is largely responsible.
The surprising emergence of the iPhone and its phone-less sibling, the iPod Touch, as hand-held game consoles has started to change the dynamics of the $40-billion game software industry. In addition to making titles for the iPhones, publishers are studying the thousands of games already available, figuring out what works and applying those lessons to more traditional games.
After years of building large, graphics-intensive blockbusters that come out every few years, developers are starting to make shorter, less expensive games that are released in more frequent installments. They're also making iPhone versions of major franchises that tie into the version for the console or computer.
And as these things become simpler and more integrated it will change how people create those games they are playing. Groups will network together to create their own games, their own books, their own comics and their own movies.
The common wisdom of Hollywood blockbusters has always been to "develop" their movies so it hits the widest group possible... but now, thanks to devices like the iphone and the netbook and the "cloud" of online apps and storage -- the common wisdom is changing. Especially as more and more individuals are able to create their own professional looking content.
As a young man I remember APA's (Amateur Press Associations). They were groups of fans who created content, copied it on a Xerox and sent it to a central mailer who bound all of the members' content together in books and distributed them back to the membership. This of course was before Al Gore invented the internet, but the same networking and "niche-interest" principles apply. The APA's were each distinct and exclusive. Dedicated to their own interests and driving each other creatively.
Now apply that to today's media - Youtube, Lulu.com, Createspace, Goanimate.com, and so on...
Add into it that I can send emails out to people right now and connect with them to finance various media projects. I can consult with a variety of 'experts' all over the world with the time and tools to complete those projects for a percentage of the profits.
I can house and edit and score all of my movie footage online.
Just as television changed watching movies (edited for running time and content; the "TV movie" ) so too will iphones, netbooks, and Facebook change how we not only watch those movies...
But how we make them.
