Apple's It's Only Rock and Rock press conference threw up some interesting points, such as the first footage of Assassin's Creed II Discovery, Gameloft's Halo-like shooter Nova, Tapulous' Riddim Ribbon, and EA Mobiles announcement of micro-transactions for Madden NFL 10.
New iPod touches - at 32GB and 64GB, and based on the iPhone 3GS graphical hardware - were also announced, alongside an iPod nano with video camera.
For developers however, the main story might be tweaks to the App Store, which are rolled into the new iTunes 9 release and the new OS 3.1 firmware update.
As part of this, Apple's Genius recommendation service has been extended to apps.
Of course, the App Store has always had recommendations in terms of the 'Customers also bought...' section for each game, but the more formal data collection and personalised analysis of Genius - as well as better placement for recommendations in terms of position within iTunes - will improve the situation.
Another feature developers have long been asking for is a change to how the Top 100 chart is constructed, using a 'by revenue' rather than a 'by number of downloads' metric.
This would encourage developers to price games higher than 99c, although it has been pointed out that the most benefit will go to publishers such as EA Mobile and Gameloft who have the most titles priced at $4.99 and $6.99.
Smaller publishers and developers such as PopCap (Peggle at $4.99) and Firemint (Real Racing at $6.99) would also benefit.
However it's not yet clear that the main Top 100 chart will be reorganised on these lines, only that a Top Grossing chart will be added to the existing selection of Top Paid and Top Free.
Still, it does show that Apple is listening to developers concerns.
News
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Top Stories
News
12 hours, 43 minutes ago
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Mobile Games E12 - Xbox's mobile games store and Unity vs. AppLovin
Feature
May 17th, 2024
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from a battle royale to a console classic remake
Feature
May 16th, 2024
Behind the scenes: How adding sandwich offers to an idle merge game boosted three metrics at once
Events
Digital Dragons | Europe | May 19th |
GamesBeat Summit 2024 | North America | May 20th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Nordic Game Spring 2024 | Nordic | May 21st |
Impact 2024 - Indie Games | May 23rd | |
Morocco Gaming Expo | Africa | May 24th |
MomoCon 2024 | North America | May 24th |
Unreal Fest Gold Coast 2024 | Australasia | May 29th |
Popular Stories
Feature
May 14th, 2024
53 top mobile games in soft launch: Squad Busters, Battle Guys: Royale, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, and more
Feature
May 13th, 2024
Hot Five: Dubai's new Gaming Visa, April's mobile game charts, and Xbox studio closures
Feature
May 14th, 2024