What has the iPhone Really Changed?

My latest article at Gamasutra is now available, entitled “What has the iPhone Really Changed?”:

The phrase I heard used more than any other at GDC this year was “the iPhone has changed everything”; with the emphasis on everything.

Every session, article and discussion seemed inexorably drawn towards the same, simplistic conclusion – the iPhone has changed everything. As if, somehow, all the industry’s problems had been solved in one fell swoop and the only issue left was to decide how to share the wealth our games would suddenly generate. There were times it seriously risked descending in to a Gold Rush mentality.

Well, at the risk of sounding like some jaded old prospector: you still need to be careful out there. Sure, there are fortunes to be made, but it’s not as simple as grabbing your digital shovel and heading up in to the App Store Mountains. So before you do, here’s Denki’s take on what the iPhone really has changed, in the hope you’ll stand a better chance of striking your fortune, rather than ending up as another statistic…

As ever, I look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.

Oh, and in case you missed it, I was also interviewed by Gamasutra earlier in the week: click here to read that one.

-Colin