Sony, Nintendo to Challenge Apple

Apple's iPhone marked its billionth download last week, less than a year after the service launched. And to gaming giants Sony and Nintendo, that means war. Rank the billion-plus iPhone and iPod Touch apps downloaded so far by category, and you'll be left with two clear conclusions: People love mobile games, and they're happy to pay for them. Almost a quarter of App Store downloads are games, which beats out the next highest ranked category, Entertainment, by a healthy 10%. It's enough to make you wonder why we're still stuck buying games for other mobile consoles in stores, a thought that apparently hasn't escaped the attention of Sony and Nintendo. Both console manufacturers are experimenting with download-only games. First out of the gate is Nintendo, whose latest DS redesign includes a "DSi Ware" store that offers exclusive games for download. Early offerings, too, are more reminiscent of the iPhone's bite-sized, pick-up-and-play games than the meatier offerings you'll find in retail boxes -- and like the iPhone, the DSi offers a broader range of multimedia functions than past Nintendo handhelds.
Not one to be left behind for long, Sony will test the online distribution waters when it offers the latest in one of its top PSP franchises, Patapon 2, as a download-only game next week. Although Patapon 2's release is being touted by Sony as a one-time trial of digital distributions, it's given yet more weight to rumors that we might soon see a redesigned PSP that'll ditch the platforms much-criticized UMD optical drive altogether in favor of digital-only game distribution. Persistent rumors indicate that Apple is looking at opening a new section of the App Store for higher-budget titles that could costs as much as $20, but until or unless that happens, it's still obvious the iPhone isn't going to make many gamers throw out their DSs. If anything, the added convenience of digital downloads on Sony and Nintendo's platforms -- which have user-bases several times the size of the iPhone -- ought to be giving Apple pause for thought.