First iPhone game summit takes shape

Bandai's iPhone version of I Love Katamari is one of the most popular games on the mobile platform. This March, iPhone game developers will gather in San Francisco to promote the platform.

(Credit: Bandai)

While there are more than 10,000 applications for the iPhone, many of the most popular ones are games. A quick glance at the top 25 paid applications reveals that 18 are games; games comprise 14 of the top 25 free iPhone apps as well. And those ratios are likely to hold for the foreseeable future.

That's most likely what led the organizer of the Virtual Goods summit to announce on Tuesday the first iPhone game conference, dubbed the iGames Summit, slated for March 19 in San Francisco.

"The market for iPhone games is exploding, and we're organizing our first event focused on this vibrant market," organizer Charles Hudson wrote in an e-mail announcing the event. "Our half-day event will bring together leading iPhone game developers, investors, and industry executives to share their collective wisdom on what's working today and where this exciting industry is heading."

On the event's still-rudimentary Web site, several leading iPhone developers are listed as having already committed to participating in the summit. Among them are Tapulous, which published the mega-hit Tap Tap Revenge, a sort of Guitar Hero for the iPhone; Zynga, a leading developer of games for sites like Facebook and MySpace; and SGN, another leading iPhone game developer.

What, exactly, will take place at the summit remains unclear, but the announcement of such an event makes sense, given the success of the platform, the number of people making games for it, and the adaptability of the iPhone--with its accelerometer, touch screen and rabid user base--for games.

[chudson_3]

Daniel,

Thanks for plugging the conference - I appreciate the article and would love to have you join us as a press guest. We will be announcing more about the talks / panels etc for the conference shortly - our full list of speakers and honest to goodness website will be live in a few weeks.

[Eddie-c]

iphone = glorified toy.

[Michael_08]

Can we get some EA Sports games on the iPhone? Thanks...I would appreciate it.

http://thirdfloorapartment.blogspot.com

[ithomas94]

Oh yes, just what we need; glitchy, unfinished, crappy ports of the same game EA sells on the consoles.
Great.