Halo Wars Brothers Build iPhone Games

[Logan Frederick]

Halo Wars Brothers Build iPhone Games

Two brothers from Ensemble Studios moved on from the defunct developer to start an iPod games studio.

Paul and Dave Bettner, software engineers who worked on the Age of Empires series at the recently closed Ensemble Studios [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86186-Microsoft-to-Shut-Down-Halo-Wars-Studio], left Microsoft before their division was shuttered to start Newtoy Inc., an independent iPhone/iPod game developer.

Newtoy's first game, Chess with Friends, sells for $5 and aims to lead "the next generation of truly connected games." Chess with Friends takes the famous game of chess to everyone through multiplayer over Edge, 3G and Wifi. Features such as in-game chat rooms and random matches allows those iPod Touch owners without friends with the same hardware to meet new sparring partners. Gameplay is "asynchronous", allowing players to take turns without having to watch the game, a system they describe as "text messaging meets gaming."

"My brother and I quit our jobs working on Halo Wars for Microsoft two months ago," revealed Paul Bettner. "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."

Source: Wired [http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/11/halo-wars-devs.html]

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[Dommyboy]

Mmhmm, because everyone knows how successful Lost was on the i gadgets.

 

[TylerC]

"My brother and I quit our jobs working on Halo Wars for Microsoft two months ago," revealed Paul Bettner. "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."

Are they serious? I have no belief in the iPhone being as revolutionary as the Gameboy.

 

[reaper_2k9]

The iphone is in no way shape or form the next gameboy, the next gameboy will be what whatever Nintendo decides it to be. I think they are treading in some rough water if they think people will put down their DS or PSP for an iphone.

 

[Zer_]

Like most Apple products the iPhone is just plain overpriced. It's a nice piece of hardware, but I'd rather get a Nokia if I had the cash.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Like most Apple products the iPhone is just plain overpriced. It's a nice piece of hardware, but I'd rather get a Nokia if I had the cash.

It's only 199. I remember when razors where 600 bucks.

 

[Zer_]

Like most Apple products the iPhone is just plain overpriced. It's a nice piece of hardware, but I'd rather get a Nokia if I had the cash.

It's only 199. I remember when razors where 600 bucks.

Obviously their price went down. Such is the case with all cellular phones. I believe they call them "Smartphones" now. I guess people really need to think they are making a good purchase or something.

Point is though, once Apple releases their next big product, they'll label it as "Cutting Edge" and sell it for a hefty price tag.

 

[driven2sin]

you guys are comical - i remember when the DS first came out and I tried to get people to get on board and so many dissed it like it was a disease.. then it proves itself and know what? the Wii lives through the same trial by fire.. now all you guys support the DS and blast the iPhone..

and you miss the point that the real reason it is a game changer is the distribution network (app store) the motion and multi touch are just icing. I mean we all know you can't really do motion when the controller is the same as the screen!!

 

[Radelaide]

...the fuck? How is this news?

Are you guys seriously going to keep reporting whenever someone in the industry makes a move like this? Nippon Ichi software is working with Nintendo, are you gonna do something about that?

If you don't like it, leave.

As for the iPhone as a hand held console; I sincerely hope not. The games would be stupidly overpriced. iPod Touch alone cost AU$328 (8GB).

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

What were they smoking? No, seriously, the iPhone is useful for games, but it will never get near the real hand-held gaming market. Might get a few good sales but you can't compare the iPhone with the gameboy.It's trying to fit a square in a circular hole and it will probably fall apart.

 

[driven2sin]

And the App Store is part of the reason why I'm not impressed with the iPhone. Do I really want another proprietary network which completely restricts the potential of the iPhone by locking out developers of potentially clever programs? Hell no. Nearly all mobile operating systems open themselves up to outside development. Apple decided that they'd go against the flow, sticking their middle finger up at outside amateur developers and load the iPhone OS with more DRM than your average game from EA.

If it does end up changing the world of gaming, all it will prove is that sometimes change for the sake of change can be a Bad Thing, and I regard most moves towards DRM to be a Very Bad Thing indeed.

yeah you probaby mad you can't get your malware stuff on app store right? have you looked at the apps? there are tons of crapware there.. the only things they have restricted so far are things that hit too close to their bread and butter and any company that is creating this kind of culture needs to make some money.. for some reason you think they can run a business for free since you probably never pay for anything except cheap beer right?

 

[michaelleung]

Honestly, the things people do for the iPhone...