Halo Wars dumped by devs, jumped ship to iPhone games

Who would’ve thunk? Halo Wars dumped for iPhone games? Certainly possible, but not at the forefront of gamers’ imaginations,  yes? Apparently, it is very possible, and in fact is an actual reality. Two members of the Halo Wars team has jumped ship to create their own company for the iPhone as a gaming platform. Find out who and why at the full article.

Looks like game developers are starting to jump ship from the consoles to the iPhone. Take for example the Bettner brothers. Paul and Dave were part of the developing team of Halo Wars but have now resigned to form their own game dev company for the iPhone.

Say what? Yep, it’s true. Says Paul Bettner,

My brother (Dave) and I quit our jobs working on Halo Wars for Microsoft two months ago. We quit our jobs because we believe in the iPhone. We believe it has the potential to be as revolutionary to handheld gaming as the original Gameboy was.

The company they put up is called Newtoy, and its objective is to create “the next generation of truly connected games”. First on their project list: Chess with Friends. This game lets players connect and play a turn-based “asynchronous” game of chess on the iPhone. What this means is that the moves are made play-by-mail style. “[L]ike text messaging meets gaming,” so Paul would describe.

If this is any indication of things to come, then it does appear that the predictions of the iPhone taking over the DS and the PSP may actually hold water, and that the big three platform makers really should watch their backs.

• UK iPhone games devs: Apple is a better format-holder than Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft
• BusinessWeek: Apple may soon be “a Mobile Gaming Force”
• Apple exec: iPhone is now, Nintendo DS and PSP are the past
  

Via Wired