That iOS games are threatening the traditional mobile gaming market is no longer a surprise. Today, TiPb declared that iPhone games may very well be the platform’s “killer app.” And maybe there’s some truth to this, but let’s be honest: iOS games won’t stand ground with console giants for a couple simple reasons.

The hardware: it’s fragmented.

As much as we like to dismiss the Android platform realized (versus the platform in theory) because of how fragmented the operating system is, all mobile devices in this market are inherently fragmented on the hardware side. That’s because the big push is to drop a new, upgraded model into consumer’s hands every year, and that doesn’t work well for mobile gaming devices.

Consider that Nintendo’s Game Boy was on the market for 10 years before the Game Boy Color was released. It would be another three years before the Game Boy Advance, and three more before the Nintendo DS. When the Nintendo 3DS hits shelves, the DS will have been around for six years.

The other major mobile offering, Sony’s PSP, was released in 2004, and the PSP2 isn’t scheduled for release until Q4 2011 at the earliest. So despite minor hardware improvements, the platform itself will have been around for seven years.

Now look at iOS devices. Come next summer, we’ll be on the fifth-generation iPhone, with each year seeing speed improvements. It’s one thing for Apple to stop supporting the 2G iPhone three years after its release, but we’ve also seen Apple drop iOS features in the iPhone 3G a mere two years after its release. There are even games in the AppStore that recommend an iPhone 4 for maximizing one’s gaming experience.

In this respect, Apple’s iOS devices are more like PCs in the gaming front, with newer games making use of better and newer hardware. The console market, in the meantime, is all about maximizing the capabilities of older hardware, such that newer hardware could be pushed off for years to come. The mobile space, as much as we want to compare it to consoles, is really only a console in terms of usability, not hardware stability over time.

Granted, things may shift just as they have for the PC market, in which hardware growth has slowed tremendously. If Apple is really making more money long-term on the AppStore and iTunes than they are on hardware improvements, then they could afford not to refresh their hardware every year. But that means Android phones, and devices from other competitors, would similarly need to slow down their hardware rat-race.

The storage: it’s lacking.

Still related to hardware, iOS device storage isn’t great. For most apps, or even multimedia in general, the current storage offerings are sufficient. But when the typical FPS comes in at several GB, iOS users will be expected to have 4+ GB of storage space per blockbuster title, and that means space quickly begins to come at a premium unless users decide to only keep one or two games on their devices at a time.

That’s why games like the revered Infinity Blade and Rage 3D are on rails. Not giving players the ability to roam around freely means developers can put less “stuff” in each title, and that means less textures, levels, animations, et al. And sadly, that sucks, because it means that while the hardware can otherwise support pretty cutting edge graphics, the lack of storage is keeping the mobile gaming market from pushing ahead. If storage weren’t an issue, then we daresay that iOS gaming could challenge any current-gen console, even if the graphics aren’t quite up to snuff (see: Wii).

One interesting outcome of this limitation is that iOS may become the de facto standard for rail-based gaming. Perhaps for non-technical reasons, console-based RPGs became a genre very different from PC RPGs, and a similar genre-generating phenomenon may be forming around iOS right now.

The control scheme: it’s… different.

Touch-based gaming is great for a variety of titles, but it’s not always ideal compared to the haptic feedback one gets from a physical interface. While a degree of control-scheme complexity is possible with iOS, one has to wonder where the limits are. An MMO like World of Warcraft (WoW), for example, would be nigh impossible to emulate on the iPhone control-wise. And that means there will be major concessions in terms of genres of games that iOS will sport. Yes, there may still be hardcore games on iOS, but the platform is clearly better at fostering more casual games with less input requirements.

What can be done?

One of the simplest things developers can do is not push cutting edge graphics, so as not to limit their games to customers who have devices more than a year or two old. Look at WoW, a game released in 2004 that, even then, didn’t push the limits of cutting edge hardware, which can arguably be considered a major boon to its success. (Blizzard has done similar with its previous games, like Diablo 2.) This is in stark contrast to MMOs like Everquest 2 who were more graphics-intensive, thereby not selling as many titles to customers with older hardware.

Games like Minecraft are further examples of unique, expansive titles working well despite not having great graphics. (Intentionally retro stylings are hot right now, bdesides.) And really, while eye-candy is nice to impress, an Infinity Blade-like game with free-roaming controls is arguably more attractive with graphics not as sharp, than the game in its current iteration, which is almost more a proof-of-concept than anything else.

Yes, we know that recent iOS devices have the hardware capable to make audiences gawk at the graphics potential of iOS games, but maybe that’s not where developers should be focusing their efforts for now. Whether rail-based games are fun is not the issue: let’s not pigeon-hole games on iOS to such rigid confinements, even if such rigid confinements make for better eye candy.

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Reviewing the news coming out of E3 this week has shown itself to be a dreary affair. One, because we had a chance to attend the expo before other priorities revealed themselves (and thus didn’t), and two, because as the hoarse voice in our head mocks, “Perhaps you’re just not a gamer anymore.” And maybe we’re not – we’re certainly not console aficionados anymore, having shed the weight of the console wars many years ago. It was by chance that we again took up the console call with Microsoft’s enormous black boxen, and later again with the innovative Wii. But let’s be clear: our gaming time is a mere sliver compared to when we vapidly devoured every PC title worth playing, and the prospect of playing competitively as we did in Counterstrike years before is simply not realistic anymore. Indeed, we may even argue that our three-round battle with World of Warcraft was the end of our earnest gaming days, but perhaps this is an overstatement: time is simply one variable that affects our level of excitement for games these days, and in short, most new titles simply do little for us. One, because we’re now more interested in titles that don’t require massive time investments per session, and two, because the vast majority of titles remaining either aren’t particularly good or simply don’t titillate us.

Sure, there’s the occasional game of note that grabs our attention, like Fallout 3 or its DLC. There’s even a couple titles from E3 that peak our interest, be it Borderlands or Grindhouse. But most titles simply bore us, and we happen to attribute much of that boredom to the simple fact that we dislike, nay, loathe the typical console control scheme. Look, we’re PC gamers at heart (it’s why we took years to come back to consoles), and quite simply, there’s nothing better than a keyboard and mouse to control most games. Especially FPS titles. In fact, much as we loved Fallout 3, we purchased it for the 360, and the reliance on crappy console controls was our biggest complaint.

This hatred of typical console controls is why we had such high hopes for the Nintendo Revolution Wii. Yet sadly, as innovative as it was, the Wii proved to be little more than a novelty. Indeed, most games we’ve played on the Wii are either novelty titles (like Wii Sports) which wouldn’t occupy our long-term interest anyway, else titles that really didn’t benefit much from the Wii remotes in the first place. But rather than poo-poo all over the Wii yet again, let’s admit that Nintendo’s effort was good, even if the result (prior to Motion Plus, maybe) was marginal.

For those who love casual games, particularly the mini-games Nintendo titles are known for, the Wii certainly stands out from the 360 and PS3. And that’s why Nintendo has managed to survive this round of the console wars, and why it was inevitable that Microsoft and Sony would want a piece of the motion-control pie. So set out both companies did, and both revealed their Wii-killing accessories at E3. The PS3 did so with little fanfare, while Microsoft just made Natal a gamer household name.

For those asleep while E3 was going on, Natal isn’t a controller, it’s the lack of a controller. Natal’s hardware component is a camera that captures physical movements, such that 360 gamers don’t need to hold a controller to swing a sword, or punch, or jump, or do whatever. Natal, capable of facial recognition, will not only act as an interface to the 360, but to a whole slew of new games that will track user movement as an input mechanism. In theory (and from what E3 videos show us), Natal is just as sophisticated as the Wii in terms of motion control, and will likely compete well against Motion Plus equipped Wiis too. The question Microsoft and Sony have been asking is this: “If we can duplicate Wii functionality on a more powerful system, won’t we lure gamers away from the Wii?” And that’s a good question to ask, if it weren’t for the lead Nintendo already has in the motion control arena. While Sony is still vested in the original question, however, Microsoft made steps not just to duplicate Wii functionality, but to move well beyond it, making their original question moot.

It’s like this: every peripheral that intends to use Wii functionality will likely be built to interface with the Wii remote. If not, then the Wii remote still needs to be used in conjunction with the peripheral. For example, why does EA Sports Active use a resistance band instead of a dumbbell? Never mind the acute advantages of a resistance band for casual athletes over a heavier exercise device: a dumbbell would simply never work alongside the Wii remote and nunchuk. Only a resistance band will work since EA Sports Active is ultimately tied to the Wii’s controllers to function.

The same game on the 360 (which is indeed coming, BTW), with Natal as an input device, is far more flexible. (It will likely be cheaper, too, since the game won’t require a nunchuk pouch to be part of the package.) Indeed, EA Sports Active, with Natal, requires the user to hold no device at all, so they could just as easily use a resistance band as they could a dumbbell. In other words, the flexibility a workout game can have with Natal is hugely significant, as a Natal-equipped 360 with EA Sports Active could easily be used with a resistance band, dumbbells, a kettlebells, et al.

About the only disadvantage to Natal versus the Wii is what the camera can’t see, as would be the case if the Wii remote is used behind the player. And that’s a relatively unlikely scenario. There’s also the Wii’s added advantage of having buttons present on the Wii remote while the swinging happens, but Natal can still be used in conjunction with a controller, remote, or other peripheral, so it’s not like Natal’s making gamers give up button presses entirely. If anything, it solves more problems than it creates, and ultimately trumps both Nintendo’s and Sony’s motion control offerings. The trick for Microsoft will be in pricing Natal competitively, and that means cheaply, in order to keep a Natal-equipped 360 close in price to the Wii, and there’s obviously some difficulty in that. If Microsoft can work this formula out, however, there’s no reason they can’t succeed in luring the Wii faithful away from Nintendo’s current-gen icon.

For gamers like us, Natal presents an interesting new landscape. We can likely expect not only casual games that Wii gamers know and love, but since we’re talking the 360, more mature titles that use Natal as well. And that presents some nice possibilities, as we can easily visualize Natal control schemes for fighting games, FPS, etc, as long as there’s some basic method to control avatar movement. For melee-oriented games, Natal is a no-brainer in this regard, as a nunchuk-like accessory would be enough to compliment the Wii. Even FPS could work incredibly well with a nunchuk with trigger component. The next question is, without that component (and there’s no indication that one will exist at Natal launch), will Natal games be limited to too casual games? Right now, Natal offers a rather incredible control scheme with the potential to add motion control to games that the Wii simply can’t handle, effectively becoming what the Wii should have been at launch. But Microsoft could just as easily fail on this front, by either focusing too strongly on party games, or not pushing the possibilities for Natal-enabled mature titles to third-party developers. In other words, Microsoft needs to push the idea that Natal is core to the 360 experience, else it will become just another accessory soon to be forgotten by the general 360 user (think Power Pad, the PS2 camera, etc).

That hoarse voice in our head, it’s chiding us. And if Natal proves to be little more than another hardware console novelty, then maybe it’s right. But we’re pretty certain that Natal can recapture our love for console gaming by making motion control both fun and efficient as an input medium. If not, we’re taking our gaming hat and heading back to PC territory. Even if it’s only for a few minutes a week.

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