Despite being a phone, the iPhone doesn't have a single cohesive online experience for playing games.

Where the DS, Playstation 3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 each have a single online services for gaming, Apple has left the creation of iPhone gaming networks to the game publishers. The result is a handful of disconnected services vying to be number one.

Publishers Gameloft, Ngmoco and Aurora Feint operate the three most popular services for the iPhone, each giving gamers the ability to connect with one another, share their gaming experiences, and play online.

Gameloft Live allows players to chat, message one another, earn game trophies and play mulitplayer matches live. Currently nine of Gameloft's titles are supported by the service with most of the publisher's future games slated to include Live support.

While Gameloft Live is only for Gameloft's titles, both Ngmoco's Plus+ network and Aurora Feint's OpenFeint are used by other developers to add online support to their games.

OpenFeint is being used in more than 300 games with another 800 in development, said Peter Relan, chairman of Aurora Feint.

The service includes game lobbies, social discovery, the ability to see what friends are playing and challenge them to games. Mulitplayer support is currently being tested, Relan said, with turn based multiplayer expected this holiday.

Ngmoco's Plus+ network allows players to create a profile, challenge friends, compete on leaderboards and find other games supported by the network.

While some gamers may feel it's inconvenient to have to sign up for multiple services to play online, the lack of any single gaming service doesn't seem like a bad thing to the three companies.

"We see it as an opportunity," said Simon Jeffery, Ngmoco's chief publishing officer. "Apple has provided a strong foundation for the development and publishing community to nurture into a rich gaming and social ecosystem. The Plus+ network was born out of consumer need, and its evolution and growth are fueled by the market."

Julien Fournials, Gameloft's senior vice president of production, agrees:

"At this point, I don't think it's that big of an issue," Fournials said. "What's happening now is that publishers are testing out and playing around with different gaming networks and customizing it to fit the needs of their games. It's good for the industry as a whole to offer consumers different gaming options."

But eventually the multiple networks could lead to problems, says Aurora Feint's Relan.

"In the long term it's a problem if the game networks are fractured," he said. "In the short term it's OK to have multiple because it creates innovation."

Eventually, Ngmoco's Jeffery say, the market will sort itself out if Apple doesn't step in with it's own network.

"We believe that there is certainly room for a couple of networks within the iPhone gaming ecosystem, possibly serving different segments of the overall market, but ultimately probably not more than that," he said. "Casual users in particular will get frustrated with multiple accounts and multiple login requests. We firmly believe that the market will rationalize into a couple of strong leaders very quickly now."

It could be a mistake to look at the current status quo of console gaming when considering the future of Apple's iPhone. Gameloft's Fournials says it might be better to compare iPhone gaming to other social networks like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, rather than to gaming platforms.

"The whole DNA of the App Store is diversity, so to have multiple social networking sites fits in with that structure," he said.

In the future, Gameloft Live will include stronger integration of social networks like Facebook, something Ngmoco is already pushing.

Meanwhile, Aurora Feint's founder and CEO Jason Citron says that his service is working to provide a network similar to Xbox Live for their games with the introduction of OpenFeint 2.4.

"Players will know when their friends are online, what game they are playing, and be able to instant message or mail each other just like on Xbox Live," Citron said. "We've added in-game forums for players to share tips and tricks, level strategies, or whatever they want with each other. Developers will be able to have a direct conversation with their players from right inside their games too — in the forums, by sending in-app announcements, responding to player feedback, or via e-mail to players who opt-in."

While it may feel like a disservice to gamers now, the ability for publishers and developers to test the bounds of what works and doesn't work in terms of social play and online gaming could help the iPhone evolve its own online gaming personality.

Providing a consistent login for the basics of online gaming, like finding opponents and comparing scores, is a must, but pushing the envelope through social interactions and community building would in the long run help emphasize the iPhone's unique networking strengths.

The best solution would be for Apple to provide that core online experience and leave the experimentation and innovation to outside developers.

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

This is interesting because, as MacWorld points out, smaller developers had welcomed Android as an alternative to the sometimes inscrutable policies and decisions of the iTunes App store. Not Gameloft (though hardly a "smaller developer,") which says it sells "400 times more games on iPhone than Android," according to the finance director Alexandre de Rochefort, speaking at an investor's conference.

Moreover, "we have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like ... many others," Rochefort said, as reported by Reuters. "It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue."

Reuters says that iPhone applications generated 13 percent of Gameloft's revenue in the last quarter.

Gameloft Says It, Others Reining in Android Plans [Reuters via MacWorld]

By tweaking and tuning the formula that made last year's entry such a rubber-burnin' blast, Asphalt 5, despite hitting one major bump in the road, positions itself as the platform's premier racer.

Loved
Garage Full of Features: A gorgeous, full-featured title, Asphalt 5 nearly rivals even the best PSP racers. Three modes-quick race, career, local and online multi-player, 33 cars, 12 tracks, vehicle customization, and unlockable stat-boosting babes-yes, you heard right!-combine for a robust arcade racing experience. Additionally, three intuitive control schemes complement gameplay that blends Burnout's adrenaline-amping crashes and Ridge Racer's wind-in-your-hair thrills. Matching the content-brimming package is a pop-off-the-screen presentation encompassing colorful environments and great details such as planes flying overhead, day/night races, and changing weather conditions.

Turn Up the Tunes: While racing to your own soundtrack is nothing new to the genre, it's damn cool to be able to lap the competition while your iPod library blasts in the background; the slick little Alpine stereo interface is also a very nice touch. My only regret is that I didn't have the Benny Hill Show theme loaded onto my play-list to accompany my more crash-tastic races. That said, listening to the Pixies' Surfer Rosa while hurtling towards the finish line at mach speed is super satisfying.

Hated
The Short Arm of the Law: While most of Asphalt 5's career challenges — Time Trial, Drift, Duel, Escape etc. — yield a well-balanced blast, Cop Chase, where you play the boys in blue and "eliminate" opponents by crashing into them at top speed or forcing them off the track, is about as entertaining as a snipped brake line. The event gets easier-and is often skippable — later in your career, but the very first one tasks you with tackling seven eliminations in three laps. I reached "Where is my mind", the last track on the aforementioned Pixie's 30+ minute debut album, four times — yup, two hours — before reaching this frustrating goal. Any game, no matter how good it is otherwise, is docked a few points if its gameplay can actually make me dread hearing one of my favorite bands. Hopefully Gameloft will alleviate this headache in a future patch.

Tons of content, fun-as-hell gameplay, great visuals, and the ability to rock your own tunes make this one the iPhone's top performer on the race circuit. That said, those who lack the patience to complete that very first, brutally difficult Cop Chase won't get to experience much of what the title offers. If you can get past that hurdle, though, this one's definitely worth buckling-up for.

Asphalt 5 was developed and published by Gameloft for iPhone on November 2nd. Retails for $6.99. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed the game's campaign and played online modes.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Count your lucky starts CNB doesn't come for you. Instead, Norris and facial hair have teamed up with Gameloft to launch their own iPhone game: Chuck Norris: Bring the Pain.

Prepare your fingers, because you'll be taking charge of mini Chuck Norris in this game as he fights his way through the Cambodian jungle in search of prisoners of war. The game include three environments, 13 levels and, you better be sitting down, TWO Chuck Norrises.

I'm surprised Apple approve a game that can kill you by touching it, but it looks like they're going to.

Released this June, the iPhone 3GS added a magnetic compass, video capture capabilities, more built-in memory and a faster processor when it hit.

But it hasn't been until recently that games designed specifically to take advantage of the new guts have started hitting iTunes.

Gameloft's Asphalt 5 is one of those games. While the racing title will play on an iPod Touch or any model iPhone, it plays best on the 3GS when it hits later this year.

That's because when the game first runs the software detects which hardware it has been installed on and launches the appropriate software. The game pack includes different files to load depending on which handset runs it, a Gameloft told Kotaku.

It's a clever way to hide the fact that the iPhone is starting to nose its way into the sticky issue of having a potentially fragmented audience, something that could have serious implications for developers and gamers alike.

N.O.V.A. was shown for the first time today at Apple's "It's Only Rock And Roll" event, evoking thoughts of Halo familiarity from our liveblogging brothers at Gizmodo. It's not an unsuccessful formula for Gameloft apparently, which published Modern Combat: Sandstorm and Gangster for the iPhone this year, which look a lot like iPhone ports of Call of Duty: Modern Combat and Grand Theft Auto, respectively.

Granted, it's not like Gameloft is the only company pumping out iPhone lookalikes. It's just taking advantage of a market that publishers of the aforementioned hits aren't developing for. And, admittedly, we haven't seen the game in action for ourselves.

But I'll be you 100 Kotaku Points there's a Chief Master in this game...

The Middle East shooter could easily be mistaken for a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare down port or at the very least a collaboration between Activision and Darude. But it looks feature rich enough to get the job done until such time as Infinity Ward or Treyarch move beyond iPhone apps for their games and start making actual iPhone games.

Early reviews on the iTunes Store look to be positive for a $6.99 game. I'm sure Crecente's dropping the cash on it any second now as he can't resist this sort of thing, so don't be surprised if it shows up in a Day Note.

Modern Combat: Sandstorm [iTunes Store]

Not one to miss the downloadable games party, Gameloft aims to be front-and-center this holiday season on the PSPgo and original PSP. The company has sports covered in the form of Real Soccer 2010 and Let's Golf!, while racing and action-adventure fans are catered to with Asphalt 5 and Hero of Sparta respectively.

Still, the most exciting title would have to be UNO. Sad, I know, but with the addition of online multiplayer, it'll be like having the Xbox Live Arcade version in the palm of your hand. I can think of worse things to have in the palm of your hand.

"For the past 10 years our focus and expertise has been digitally distributed games. From mobile games to iPhone/iPod Touch to next-gen consoles, our success stems from the ability to adapt and evolve on the latest platforms," said Michel Guillemot, president, Gameloft. "The PSP(R)go will contribute to the innovations going on in the gaming space right now and we look forward to being front and center with our games at launch."

Check out the official descriptions of Gameloft's offerings below.

- Real Soccer 2010 - the famous handheld soccer simulation arrives on the PSP(R)go system. Get immersed in the atmosphere of a live match thanks to true to life 3D graphics and animation. Discover a complete range of game modes and easily perform the most amazing soccer moves.

- Hero of Sparta - an epic and colossal adventure with staggering 3D graphics that fully capture the mythological atmosphere. 8 levels to explore and legions of phenomenal creatures to defeat in this odyssey.

- Asphalt 5 - a high velocity driving game with more than 15 million downloads sold. Ride the best cars in the world including Ferrari and Lamborghini in high-speed races through 15 of the hippest locations in the world from Paris to Aspen.

- Let's Golf! - It's time for you to become a big hitter and drive for the green with Let's Golf! Choose to play with 4 cool and customizable characters across 63 holes in 4 distinct locations remodeled in refreshing 3D visuals from Fiji Beach to the English countryside.

- UNO (TM) - play the #1 classic card game with friends and family on your PSP(R)go system. Enjoy traditional UNO(TM) or customize your own game with 9 different rules to play your way. Challenge friends near and far through local and online multiplayer mode.

Earthworm Jim was winning the voting for the next Sega Genesis classic by a wide margin yesterday, when Interplay and Gameloft made their big announcement: Earthworm Jim was coming to all consoles in downloadable form. The bad news? Sega had to remove Jim from the poll. The good? We're getting Earthworm Jim anyway.

Unfortunately, due to a licensing issue, we are no longer able to offer Earthworm Jim as an option in our poll. It was announced earlier today that Gameloft will be bringing Earthworm Jim to Xbox Live Arcade along with several other platforms. We are excited that our fans will soon be able to play this game.

There's even more good news, as my second choice - Toejam & Earl - is currently leading the newly reset poll, so we're basically getting our two top picks instead of one. Everybody wins!

UPDATE: Genesis Poll [Sega America]

Loved
Comprehensive Coverage: Gameloft managed to pack what is basically a Nintendo 64 version of Madden football into an iPhone - and not as an emulated ROM, but built from the ground up. Some might find this alone enough to reward its $4.99 price, and if so, Gameloft earned it. NFL 2010 delivers a playbook more than 100 plays deep, live announcer commentary, pre-game animations, post-play reactions, configurable depth charts, a 17-week NFL season with its real players, and a playoffs mode if you want a smaller-size multigame experience. It's the most complete sports experience on the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.

Hated
Camera, Inaction!: The video rarely stays at the same angle or framerate. Sometimes it's because the size of the game is overwhelming the iPhone's processor. Other times, its deliberately slowing the action down so you can hit a special move key, whose appearances are not entirely predictable. There is a horrible camera zoom every time your runner reaches the line of scrimmage, whether you're breaking it to the outside or running up the gut. You're zoomed so far in you can't see the next blocker coming and when you run past the camera position you're often off the screen entirely. The zoom in on receivers catching a pass is likewise terrible. I was rarely able to run after a catch.

Go Back, Jack, Do It Again: If you intend to play a full game for keeps, or any game in a season mode, don't take any calls. Yeah, you can mash the pause button or turn the phone off to go take a dump or feed the dog or whatever, and come back and pick up where you left off. But leaving the application idle as you do something else in the iPhone will take you back to the beginning of the most recent incomplete quarter when you return. That's bad. It commits you to doing nothing else in your device for 30 minutes, or at least to finish the quarter at risk of having that lead-changing 80-yard drive wiped out. Sure, I don't expect to be able to save my game mid-play on a console. But Mom doesn't call me on the Xbox. A mobile game has to reasonably cope with real life interruptions, and NFL 2010 forces you to schedule around them.

As a proof of just how deep an iPhone game can be, NFL 2010 is a stout achievement. It's definitely playing in a console-game league. But of course, if this game was on a console, it'd get crushed in comparison to Madden. So it's grander than just an arcade-style football game, but still very limited next to console season simulators that hardcore football fans, if they're interested in trying one on this device, are probably already playing.

Many will find its price a bargain if they're promised an entire season of football on their iPhone, and for $4.99, NFL 2010 over-delivers. But as a game it's in a limbo of sorts, with long-lasting games at the expense of pick-up-and-play appeal, and a season experience that does plenty but nothing particularly eye-popping. It's both too much and not enough.

NFL 2010 was developed and published by Gameloft for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Released to the iTunes App Store on Aug. 4. Retails for $4.99 USD. Reviewed on an iPhone 3G. Played quick play, season, and playoff modes.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

EA's exclusive rights to create video games utilizing the NFL license doesn't extend to mobile games. This is how Gameloft has continuously released NFL titles for normal mobile phones over the past few years, and how they can get away with releasing titles for the iPhone, which despite its increasingly powerful game capabilities, still counts as a mobile device. Back when EA made the exclusivity agreement, mobile gaming was only beginning to grow in popularity, and as recently as a year ago, press releases like the one Gameloft released announcing NFL 2009 went largely unnoticed.

Either way, NFL 2010 is due out by the end of this month for the iPhone and iPod Touch, with a price to be determined. It features full NFL rosters, touch screen controls, and could very well be the go-to game for NFL fans still flustered over the EA deal.

NFL Licensed Football Game Coming to iPhone, But Not From EA [BitMob]

This was a tricky week, as two of our finest, McWhertor and Fahey, were off to Comic-Con and working odd hours because of it. So I wrote more posts and therefore did a little less reporting and left less on the cutting room floor. But still, here are some scraps...

A Rare Studio Visit: You might think that an experienced video game reporter like myself would have visited a lot of game development studios. Unfortunately, I haven't. Blame my being based in the studio-light New York or not barging into enough development company offices or whatever. When I stepped into the Gameloft studio in New York on Tuesday, where I witnessed games actually being developed, well, that was unusual. (I was there to play Gangstar: West Coast Hustle, a GTA-like iPhone game.) I've covered games full-time for a little over four years and my visit to an active game development part of Gameloft adds to a short list that includes a visit at Retro in Austin, Midway's recently-shuttered Austin studio, the recently-shuttered Gamelab in New York, Yukes in Yokohama, EA in Redwood Shores and Double Fine in San Francisco. That's it, though I think having Kenta Cho show me stuff on his laptop counts too. I've been in meeting-room areas at Rockstar (NYC), Nintendo of America (Redwood Shores), Tecmo (Tokyo), Sony (Tokyo), Sega (San Francisco), Konami (San Francisco), EA (Los Angeles) and probably a few others. But if we're talking strictly visits to places where people are at computers developing stuff, it's just that short list.

MotionPlus Calibration Needs Still A Question: Chatting with Nintendo reps in Times Square on Thursday did not help answer one lingering question from my fun time playing Wii Sports Resort on Saturday: Why does the game ask for the controller to be re-calibrated - sometimes by having it placed upside down on a table — before any new mini-game is played? (EDIT: As readers noted below, what I wrote was a little bit of overstatement. Based on my experience and others' the re-calibration is needed several times an hour, of you're playing lots of different sports in the game — but it doesn't need to be re-set for each and very switch. Apologies for not being more clear about that. I phrased the question properly to the Nintendo folks but over-simplified it in this article.) Nintendo's corporate affairs v.p Denise Kaigler referred me to the company's product expert Bill Trinen. He said that he believed the designers required that in order to ensure that each of the diverse sports in Wii Sports Resort can be controlled with fine and accurate motions. But I wondered if this signaled a limitation for the MotionPlus. Could it be used without any interruption for re-calibration, in longer, continuous games that might mix up motion styles? It's a hypothetical question and one Trinen couldn't address at the moment. He sounded confident in the technology, but, as I suggested to him, it's something I guess we'll have to wait and see about, when games that try to do what I'm talking about, come along. Maybe Red Steel 2 will be a test case.

Nutcracker Notes: Finally, I guess it pays to mention in Twitter the games you are playing for review. While I know some reviewers don't like to read other reviews for fear of being prematurely influenced, I appreciated the e-mail from a reader this week who saw that I was playing Little King's Story and sent me some information about it. His note expanded my understanding of how the game's developers were influenced by things like the Nutcracker Suite. I can't say I caught all that on my own, and I'm a fan of learning this extra stuff to make what I do more informed. That added info may not make it into a post or even my review, but it's good stuff to know. Makes me feel smarter. That review was supposed to run today, but I haven't finished the game yet, so it bounces to next week.

That's all for today. Comic-Con madness subsides next week, I book some trips, some more embargoes lift and I get to check out the full holiday line-ups from Ubisoft and Sony, with some Majesco mixed in. Should be fun. Happy weekend, everyone.

The 42.0 station, the frequency itself a reference to marijuana, is called "Legalize It. "It's one of four radio stations of original music in the game, which models its story of Latino L.A. street crime off of the storytelling and gameplay style of the GTA games. (Here is Kotaku's preview of Gangstar: West Coast Hustle.)

A quick pot reference — not even, as far as I could see, any hint of pot use— might go unremarked in other forms of entertainment. Plenty of Hollywood actors, athletes rock stars and musicians have discussed their pot use and their desire for the drug to be legalized in the United States. It's not rare to see a character in a film casually discuss smoking pot or advocate for its use.

Drug use is less common in games, and any expression supporting drug use is virtually absent. Take gaming's most notorious series, Grand Theft Auto. In GTA: San Andreas, the pot-farmer voiced by Peter Fonda, a guy who goes by the name of The Truth, offers the game's protagonist, C.J., some pot. C.J., who, with the aid of the player has shown little hesitation to kill cops and even, late in the game, try to blow up the equivalent of Hoover Dam, turns him down. It's a line the game won't cross. In the most recent GTA, Chinatown Wars, the player can deal pot and other drugs referred to by their real name, but, as with the rest, marijuana is treated as nothing other than a money-making commodity used by characters not worthy of starring in a game.

As is the case for all the games on Apple's iPhone and iPod touch platforms, Gangstar: West Coast Hustle, won't be rated by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. According to a publicist at its publisher/development studio Gameloft, it will be rated for 16 and up. The game is slated for an August release.

Word first leaked about Gangstar: West Coast Hustle earlier this month. It's another GTA-like game coming to a platform that Rockstar Games hasn't yet graced its presence with.

I played Gangstar yesterday at the New York offices of the game's publisher and developer, Gameloft. And I even found a few ways it's different than GTA.

What Is It?
Gangstar is an approximation of Grand Theft Auto game design that puts the player in the shoes of Pedro, a man recently returned from Mexico and caught up in the violence of the game's primary locale, Los Angeles. The core car-jacking and and cop-shooting elements from the 3D GTAs are in the game; sleeping with prostitutes, I was told, is not.

What We Saw
I played the game's intro missions and tried a flashback set in a prison yard. In my first mission in L.A. I had to find a pay phone, where I needed to beat up a gang member who said that my guy wasn't wearing the right colors to use a phone marked in blue. Then I jacked a couple of cars, learned to shoot at people, bought some armor at a shop called Bullet Time and ran afoul of the law. Later, I drove a limousine while a couple made love in the back (The game will be rated 16 and up, but it's violent, not risque).

How Far Along Is It?
Gangstar is set for August release, but given that it is a downloadable iPhone/iPod Touch game, that should leave plenty of time for tweaks.

What Needs Improvement?
How It's Cruder Than GTA: Sure, the game looks like GTA, but possibly due to the horsepower of Gangstar's platform, some things aren't quite as you'd expect. For example, I could drive through trees as if they weren't there. I saw a pedestrian who should have been dashing down the street. Instead, she was snagged on a park bench, running in place as if she was at a nightclub in the 90s. Any bit of polish on this kind of stuff would be great.

The Police System: Do bad things and the cops will come after you, as represented by an increasing number of badges displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. These badges would go away if I hid or if I ran/drove through the game world, picking up badges strewn across the landscape. Not bad, in theory, but in my effort to evade the cops and drive to a badge marked on my mini-map, I invariably got spotted by the cops again. I couldn't shake these guys.

What Should Stay The Same?
The Controls: This game was comfortable and easy to control. It is played with the iPhone (or iPod Touch) held horizontally. The player's left thumb controls a virtual analog stick. The right thumb can tap an action icon which will make Pedro punch, kick, shoot or whatever else suits what he's armed with. Tapping the weapons icon changes weapons. Tapping the game's mini-map enlarges it. Tapping on an enemy will lock on to them so you can attack. Driving options are varied, allowing for a virtual steering wheel under your left thumb, pedals under your right — or accelerometer-based driving if you want to tilt your phone. For the most part, these controls worked very well. I was stymied only by a third steering option involving a control stick.

How It's Different From GTA: The game's got a few things that GTA doesn't have, and more of that is to be encouraged. What gamer just wants to play a clone? As mentioned above, there is a playable flashback set in a prison, so we're experiencing a narrative told out of standard chronological order. Possibly more troubling for some people is the game's non-GTA-like rewarding of cash to players for every kill they make. It's not just that some downed enemies drop money, as in Rockstar's series. Nope. In this game, killing a cop or running over a civilian makes the player money.

How It's Similar To GTA: The fact that a game made in the style of a 3D Grand Theft Auto can run on an iPhone or iPod touch is impressive. It shows just how capable Apple's hardware is. As a test case or proof of processing prowess, it's a positive development. Musically, the game also draws inspiration from GTA, offering four in-game radio stations or — for those with 3.0 firmware — integrating music on your phone/iPod into the game.

Final Thoughts
I'm always a bit uncomfortable playing a game that so slavishly imitates another, but without having played all of Gangstar, I can't say that that is all this game is. And, if that is all it is, it's still an achievement that will probably please many who own Apple's handheld.

Is this really what Rockstar would do on an iPhone? It's hard to imagine that. But it certainly has been made to play a lot like what Rockstar has done elsewhere. A GTA wannabe on an Apple handheld. Interested?

Gangstar has players taking on the role of a gangster in a 3D recreation of what sounds to be a reconstruction of a fictional L.A. As with GTA, and iPhone's Payback, players can choose what missions to take on and when they want to just roam around.

The game will let you steal vehicles, get into gunfights, and avoid police. It also features multiple radio stations and the ability to listen to your own music in game.

Not much more is known about the game yet, but it certainly looks interesting.

Is the buzz surrounding Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch deserved or just the byproduct of a vocal, technophile few?

While major mobile game developers like Apple-centric ngmoco and international powerhouse Gameloft all say the Apple devices are just a small share of the mobile market, they also all agree that the impact it is having on mobile games is unprecedented.

"Apple's introduction has been a watershed moment for the industry as operators and handset manufacturers are increasingly focusing on their offering around apps and storefronts," said Jill Braff, the Senior Vice President of Global Publishing for Glu Mobile. "We're excited about the iPhone and iPod Touch market – it's certainly a unique and compelling platform in the mobile business. "

Trip Hawkins, Digital Chocolate CEO and founder of Electronic Arts, says that he's never seen a new device become important as fast as Apple's iPhone and its App Store, which allows people to buy software and games on their iPhone or Touch through the device.

"Apple devices have only scratched the surface of demand so far," he said. "Apple will provide sustained long-term growth, but they have also galvanized competitors who will help further expand this 'nextgen' consumer smartphone marketplace. Today Apple is talking about tens of millions of devices but they are the archetype for a market for several billion devices.  It is already a big deal to us but the best is yet to come."

With 40 million iPhone and Touch owners, it seems hard to believe that the Apple smartphone generates as much interest as it does from developers who create games for a potential market of billions.

Why care what one percent of what the total market things? Mobile developers say that's in part because iPhone owners tend to buy a lot more games on their device than typical mobile phone owners.

Many, including Neil Young, founder of developer ngmoco, also sees the platform as the future for mobile gaming.

Mobile game sales had stagnated, he said, until the iPhone came along. Now most of the industry's growth, he believes, will come from the iPhone.

"Gross App Store revenue is going to be about half a billion dollars in 2009," he said, pointing out that that includes all applications, not just games. "We are just at the very, very beginning of an incredible explosion of mobile gaming. You are now seeing this blend of usability and capability driven by the ease at which people can develop for this platform and the ease that customers can get games on their devices."

"This isn't just about mobile gaming, it's about portable gaming. The impact on not just mobile gaming but handheld gaming is huge. The (Sony's) PSPgo is clearly a reaction to the iPhone."

Despite singing the praises of the iPhone and its importance in the larger mobile gaming market, Digital Chocolate, Glu Mobile and Gameloft are still hedging their bets, continuing to do a bulk of their development for other mobile platforms.

Glu's Braff says the company has dedicated about 30 percent of their development resources on the iPhone and other smartphone devices.

"While developing for devices like the iPhone is very important to us, a large part of our business still comes from traditional platforms like Java and Brew," she said.

Hawkins was a little less specific, saying only that the iPhone is Digital Chocolate's "number one platform priority," adding that their development tools allow them to "leverage our creative assets to many platforms."

Gameloft's Gullemont says the iPhone and Touch are just one of the 1,200 devices Gameloft develops for, but that the developer has assigned 500 of the company's 3,500 developers to work on games for the platform.

"The iPhone is very significant, very important," he said. "I think the iPhone is showing the way. That's why we dedicated to it very early a large number of high quality developers."

Despite what he and others say is Apple's enormous potential in the mobile games market, Guillemot says that Gameloft is "still largely invested in mobile phones."

"There are 40 million (iPhone owners) versus 4 billion (mobile phone owners)," he said. "There is still some way to go before the balance of power shifts."

Well Played is a weekly opinion column about the big news of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

Gameloft CEO Michel Guillemot says that the two are the most significant changes to hit the still emerging gaming platform to date, but points out that Apple still has a ways to go before working out all of the kinks in iTunes gaming.

"I think these are very significant," he said. "Firmware 3.0 is really important because it opens the iPhone apps to the Internet world. It gives a lot of choice to users, the possibility to purchase levels, to contact your friends, to be open to the Internet."

For Gameloft the new firmware, due out today, means creating games that are more open, more customizable to users.

"You can purchase the levels you like, you can race in the cities you like, all of that is something that will make a sort of revolution," he said. "It is amazing what Apple is doing with 3GS, you are really reaching a kind of console power now. With this new model you will be able to create games that are perfect console games, give an experience to users that are second to none."

"For the first time gamers can choose to play on a dedicated console or choose to play on an iPhone, but have no compromise in the experience."

While Gameloft doesn't yet have plans to make games specifically for the 3GS iPhone, due out on June 19, Guillemot says that one day they likely will. Until then, Gameloft games will be scalable.

"I think the games will take advantage automatically of the new iPhone, to a certain extent. For the specific features in an iPhone 3Gs we will have to wait a bit. It's a little early to give you exactly which games will have what. "

While the new firmware brings with it plenty of new game-centric features and the iPhone 3GS is more capable of handling games, there are still plenty of kinks to work out in the App Store.

Prices range from free to $10 and developers regularly complain that their titles get lost in the constant stream of games adding daily to the more than 50,000 apps in the store.

Some have pointed to Gameloft as a culprit in the pricing problems on the system. Several of their games hit the store for $10, much higher than the typical iPhone price. Guillemot defended their pricing model, saying that games on the device should sell for $5 to $10.

"We feel at that price there is still a lot of value for consumers," he said. "It is the right price point in terms of value for money."

But pricing and visibility are a constant source of concern even for big developers like Gameloft.

"There are two trends right now in the App Store," he said. "One is to say we should remain in what is the logical price for a game of that quality on a device of that quality. But there is an attraction in saying that you can reach millions of people, so price isn't important.

"I think the App Store is something that has never been done before. It's a new experiment for everyone including Apple and developers. I think everyone is adapting in real time to what this eco system is."

"Gameloft is looking at all of this as well and adapting also when we can."

Pricing, though, will become less of a concern with the iPhone's latest firmware, Guillemot thinks. That's because more games will likely rely on the ability to sell content within their title to make money.

"It will open a completely new way of monetizing games," he said.

While visibility is a struggle for everyone in the increasingly crowded App Store, Guillemot has faith in Apple solving the problem and doing so without needing to create a stand alone store for games.

"I think everyone is surprised by the level of success of the App Store, getting from zero to 50,000 apps in one year is a challenge for everyone," he said. "It's a challenge for everyone to get visible when you have that many appsl, but I think Apple is working regularly to fine tune the store so the best games get the best visibility."

Guillemot doesn't want a gaming store because he thinks the open nature of the App Store is one of its greatest strengths.

"The logic of it is to be wide-open like the Internet, but to also be promoting people who make a premium experience for users," he said. "If they were to create a specific App Store for games we may lose the Internet effect of it, the openness of what the App Store has today.

"It's a delicate balance to handle," he said. "To keep the richness of apps and to still promote or put forward the apps that are really bringing a significant value or experience to users."

While Gameloft and other developers struggle with the issues inherent in a blossoming gaming platform, there is one thing that most will agree on. The iPhone and iPod Touch, with more than 40 million users, is a viable and very real platform for gaming.

"It is a real gaming device," he said. "It may have even grown the market, instead of cannibalizing it."

Late last month Yves Guillemot, Michel Guillemot's brother and the CEO of Ubisoft, said that he didn't think Apple's gaming success would stop with the iPhone. But Michel Guillemot says that he doesn't know anything specific about the notion from Apple.

"Everything with Apple is more about rumors than information," he said. " But I would say that there is a kind of logic there."

The success of the games on the iPhone and iPod touch have made everyone pause a bit, Guillemot said

"It would certainly make a lot sense," he said. "The question is where would you position a game devices? You have very, very successful console makers who are extremely effective at what they do. I don't think anyone would displace the three anytime soon."

But, Guiillemot says, as gaming becomes as prevalent as the Internet the notion of platform specific games should eventually go away.

"I would say gaming will be ubiquitous in two or three years time," he said. "We will have many, many platforms enabling gaming, just like we now have many, many platforms enabling Internet."

Guillemot points to how many devices people now use to watch videos as a good example of that.

"Today you watch videos on everything," he said. "You don't care much what it's being watched on. When you are mobile you use mobile. At home you can watch on your PS3 or TV, you can watch on your PC or Mac. Now video is everywhere. I would say gaming will be everyone with a good level of quality in two years time."

And that fits in well with Gameloft's mission, which is to supply games that are "compatible with this very open world where consumers have control over which device they play on and how they play it."

"That is really what Gameloft is trying to do," he said. "That's why we have games playing on every device that is Internet connected, all mobile, all smartphones, all consoles, all portables."

Gameloft's current game catalog includes 250 mobile games, 30 iPhone games, seven WiiWare games, three, DSiWare games, one game each for the Playstation Network and Xbox Live arcade, nine DS titles, and one each for the Wii and Playstation 3.

"We let the consumers decide how they want to play our games," Guillemot said.

Terminator Salvation for the iPhone is another video game spin-off of the fourth Terminator movie, released earlier this month as another option for those look for an interactive expansion of the McG-directed Christian Bale-starring action flick. You could go with the console version of the game blasted through in three hours by Kotaku's Brian Crecente or this game, also a third-person shooter, which I wrapped up in 90 minutes. Both tell side-stories to the movie, this one alternating player control from John Connor to Marcus Wright, the heroes of the film.

The iPhone edition, developed by Gameloft and credited by the company as its 12th movie game, is comprised of eight levels of mostly on-foot cover combat with a couple of vehicle-based shooting missions thrown in. Several tilt-the-iPhone circuit-board hacking segments are sprinkled in as well. There was effort applied here, a reason enough for gamers to hope and part with five bucks?

Loved
The Movie Game Solution? Consider the variations of the simplistic, licensed movie game that gets gifted to movie fans. In the old days, there were lots of side-scrolling beat-em-ups on, say, the Genesis. These games were full price, but barely resembled the movies they were based on. They've mainly had some successors, including cheaper but still crude cell-phone movie games and expensive but much more graphically and aurally cinematic movie games for higher-end consoles. That latter group includes the recent console version of Terminator Salvation and typically costs consumers more than their gameplay quality warrants. Their value is in the you-are-in-the-movie virtual-acting experience they provide. You are John Connor up against Terminators while the signature soundtrack clangs. The fourth way? An iPhone/iPod-Touch game like this one that can look good enough and sound epic enough to put you in a movie experience, but will only run you five dollars. In terms of balancing blockbuster-cinematic-appeal, game-design-quality and wallet-expense, this may be the perfect scenario to amuse players without burning them. Apple's platform to the rescue?

Hated
Clumsy: While our future fight against murderous machines will not be an easy one, let's hope it's not this awkward. Gameloft's approach with third-person games like this on the iPod/iPhone is to imitate dual-analog controls via a virtual thumbstick on the left and a drag-your-right-thumb-to-aim mechanic on the right. The firing button is in the screen's lower right corner. The scheme works fine in straight-on firefights, and the snap-cover system works fine also when approached in a straight line, but at angles or in the heat of battle there is much stumbling, much getting caught on scenery and a very slow turning radius. Humanity can't win this way.

That Other Marcus: One assumes the game's designers have played Gears of War. Hence the cover system. Hence the curb-stomps. Hence the button-mash melee moments. Hence the vehicle missions. Where's Dom's wife? The problem here is that Gears controlled well. This barely gets by.

What you've got in Terminator Salvation is what one's lowest expectation of movie games should get you: something basic but enriched by the style of the movie. There's little the designers can probably do with the thin source material — after all, what is the essence of Terminator fiction that can be ported to a video game in any more complex way than skinning the enemies to look like killer robots? Little opportunity was squandered, because it's hard to see what opportunity there was.

Movie critics have already declared that the Terminator Salvation movie is like a video game. Doubtless they didn't have a game like Ico, Tetris or Portal in mind when they made that comparison, but might they have been comparing it to a game like iPhone Terminator Salvation? They might as well have been.

Terminator Salvation was developed by Gameloft for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Retails for $4.99 USD. Played through easy mode in 86 minutes, found 71 item drops to unlock concept art, started Extreme difficulty which swaps the lead character for a Terminator.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Why? Because the game isn't a new title, developed with the iPhone in mind to take advantage of the platform's numerous strengths. It is instead a port of the DS version of the game, which was short, and ugly. Just what the iPhone needs! Another port!

This version will be just as short, only less ugly, with the graphics getting a touch-up for Apple's more powerful handheld. It will also include the touch-sensitive mini-games from the DS version.

Assassin's Creed: Exclusive First Look [IGN]