Now this is interesting. Andriasang reports that Sony’s PlayStation suite will move to other platforms. SCE CEO Kaz Hirai said:

We have a completely open stance. There are a variety of OSes, but we’re focusing first on Android. There’s also Windows, iOS and so forth, but we don’t have the resources to make it compatible with everything from the start.

This is a fair enough statement, although I question the business decision in aiming first for Android, when it’s clear Sony would make a killing on iOS (despite having to give up 30 per cent of payments to Apple).

Detractors will probably argue that Sony’s ‘open’ stance is an admission that its handheld ambitions (now placing the company resolutely in third place, behind Nintendo and Apple) are failing, but I think this could prove to be a shrewd and brilliant move. At worst, Sony makes a load of cash from reselling old IP, to customers who don’t have a Sony device and don’t feel compelled to buy one. At best, lapsed Sony customers may fall in love with PlayStation games all over again and seek out the current iteration of the company’s consoles. And at the worst end of ‘at worst’, it also sets up Sony to dramatically shift towards a Sega-style software-only position should it need to in the future.

Assuming by ‘open’, Sony does eventually mean ‘Android, iOS, Windows and maybe even Mac’ and not just ‘Android’, there’s nothing here but a huge win for the company.

Hat tip: iPhone Games Bulletin.

DOS emulator iDOS arrived on the App Store last year and was swiftly removed once it became clear the author had ill-advisedly bundled commercial games with it that he didn’t have the rights to. Apple was also apparently pissed that iTunes file sharing enabled you to upload your own games to the app. This, apparently, is bad and totally different from, say:

• File-sharing books to iBooks, GoodReader, Stanza and the like;
• File-sharing comics to Comic Zeal;
• File-sharing documents you’ve written to Pages;
• File-sharing practically anything to Air Sharing.

So in iDOS 2, the author removed file-sharing, resubmitted and the app found its way back to the store. The author reports it’s been pulled again, “because the ability to run custom executable is violating the appstore [sic] policy”.

These ‘custom executables’ (i.e. third-party games) can only be installed by using a third-party utility to access app bundles. Applications like iPhone Explorer and PhoneView enable users of non-jailbroken devices to mount an application bundle and access its /Documents and /Library folders. In iDOS, you could shove old DOS games in there, then fire up the command line on the app itself and load the games. Apple considers this evil, even if you, say, own the rights to the games, or they are freeware and you therefore legally have the right to run them.

My worry is that Apple will now close the backdoor to app bundles, somehow blocking access to the aforementioned folders. Few people know they exist and that you can access them, but they are massively handy, because backing up these folders is the ONLY way you can back-up content from apps and games before deleting them, and the ONLY way you can reinstate your data after a reinstall. I’ve done this myself many dozens of times—it’s the only way I can have a usable device but also not ‘lose’ the many hours I put into the likes of GTA.

Apple clearly doesn’t care about this. When you wipe an app, the data’s gone for good. This is absurdly stupid, putting iOS games on a par with cheap, nasty DS carts that don’t have battery back-ups. If Apple automatically backed up game and app states to iTunes and provided the option for reinstating this data on a reinstall, blocking backdoors would be fine, but it doesn’t. Here’s hoping I’m wrong, but knowing Apple, it favours locking down wherever possible, even if there’s really little or no reason to.

In January, I remarked on IceFish’s amazing line of side-scrolling Metal Slug rip-offs, which weren’t at all basically the same game trying to spam the App Store.

There was Commando:

And the amazing, innovative Commando Soldier:

And then the truly ground-breaking Action Commando:

But it appears I wasn’t thorough enough in my exploration of the App Store, because I missed iCmdo, for which I can only apologise. That creative and novel game looks like this:

But what if, even after iCmdo, you’ve not had your fill of exciting, unique, cutting-edge iOS games? Why, you’re in luck, because IceFish has created two more pioneering titles that are unlike anything you’ve ever seen on the App Store before.

First up, there’s the distinctive CommandoCityRescue:

But Craig, I hear you say, I don’t like games with ‘City’ in the title, so what can I do? WHAT IS THERE FOR ME HERE? Don’t be disheartened, because IceFish has created a game just for you, and it’s called CommandoRescue:

I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating IceFish for creating what must be the most diverse and imaginative selection of games on the App Store. EA, your time is done—there’s a new champ in town!

Interesting times in mobile gaming. Although plenty of people continue to dismiss iOS and similar devices going forward, the industry is gradually shifting. The big news today is on MVC, where Capcom Interactive’s president and COO Midori Yuasa had this to say:

The casual gamer that used to play on the PC and the hardcore gamer that used to play on a dedicated gaming portable now plays on their smartphone.

The iPhone and larger smartphone markets are extremely important to Capcom as, like no device before, smartphones have the potential to become a universal game platform.

This is the fight Nintendo’s now in with the 3DS, and it’s very different to battling just another gaming console.

Rummaging through my feed of new iOS games, I spot Commando by IceFish (and immediately think: “Man, Capcom’s going to be pissed with that name”):

Still, a name’s a name and you have to call your Metal Slug rip-off something, right? And then I spotted the ENTIRELY DIFFERENT Commando Soldier, also by IceFish:

As you can see, this is a totally new, unique iOS game, and I felt the urge to immediately buy both games. But before I could click OH MY GOD BUY THIS NOW, Action Commando glued itself to my eyeballs:

Personally, I’m also hugely impressed that these guys managed to get the same score/health/ammo levels/time in place when taking shots for these three games, because that doesn’t at all make me think they’re lazy buggers, trying to spam the App Store with popular game names by flinging out the same game three times.