今日美国（USA TODAY）刊发了麦克-斯奈德（Mike Snider，了解更多作者的文章）的文章，文章中说来自Apple的这个发明（iPad，维基百科介绍，ipad功能解析）会改变电子游戏的未来吗？

ipad（图片来自纽约每日新闻）

之前的iPod Touch和iPhone已经笼聚了大批的游戏开发商，包括电子艺界（Electronic Arts ）、美国动视（Activision）和育碧软件（Ubisoft）在内游戏研发佼佼者，推出了像使命的召唤（Call of Duty）、摇滚乐队（Rock Band ）和刺客教条（Assassin’s Creed）这类名闻遐迩的经典游戏。

call of duty

rock band

assassins creed

为了匹配iPad，电子艺界的手机部门已经针对iPad推出了包括拼字游戏（Scrabble）、俄罗斯方块（Tetris）等在内的五款游戏。电子艺界的移动部门的亚当-素斯曼（Adam Sussman，电子艺界发行副总裁，看作者linkedin的介绍）在采访时表示“我们认为iPad这样的平台对于游戏来讲具有巨大的潜力。它能让我们实现一些在手机平台上不能实现的一些想法。接下来，我们将针对性地做出一些列的产品研发。”

scrabble

Apple系列产品在市场上很畅销，iPhone和iPod Touch在全球电子游戏份额已经从2008年的1%激增到5%，而整体的游戏市场达到了100亿美元。

Flurry公司的Peter Farago认为，传统的游戏工业将会因为Apple而发生巨大的改变。

flurry

In GodFinger, one of the several hundred games already sprouting up for the iPad, players make over a barren world into one of lush greenery, peopled with loyal worshipers.

Could Apple’s new wonder gizmo remake the video game landscape?

The arrival of the iPod Touch and the iPhone led major game publishers including Activision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft to release tailored versions of blockbuster games such as Call of Duty, Rock Band and Assassin’s Creed. And new developers such as ngmoco cropped up to create games specifically for Apple’s mobile devices.

MORE: Play along on the iPad with these games

For iPad’s launch, EA Mobile, a division of EA, released five iPad games including Scrabble, Tetris and Need for Speed Shift. “We think of it as a new product category with tremendous potential for gaming,” says EA Mobile’s Adam Sussman. “This is a hugely exciting platform for gaming and allows us to do things we couldn’t before in mobile games. We have a lot of titles coming out in the rest of the year.”

Apple’s influence on the market is growing. Games for iPhone and iPod Touch accounted for nearly 5% of the $10 billion in overall video game sales, up from 1% in 2008, according to analyst firm Flurry. “The traditional gaming giants may yet again be disrupted by Apple,” says Flurry’s Peter Farago.

Diehard and casual video-game lovers alike have reason to be bullish on the iPad. The device’s 9.7-inch screen delivers rich colors and a much larger palette for game developers than popular handheld systems from Nintendo and Sony. Of course, it’s pricier too: The 16-gigabyte model costs $499, the 32GB and 64GB versions are $599 and $699. Comparatively, a Nintendo DS starts at about $130; the PlayStation Portable, about $170.

Already among 3,500-plus iPad applications available are several hundred games, some priced $1.99 to $14.99, others free. And like smaller cousins the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad is intuitive when it comes to games — you just touch the display and turn, twist or tilt it.

So far, Apple says it has sold 500,000 iPads. Its high price could be a barrier for many, despite the iPad being “a superb game device,” says Scott Steinberg, lead analyst for high-tech consulting and research firm TechSavvy Global.

The most likely purchasers, he says, are casual gamers “who enjoy low-end simple social gaming experiences” or hard-core gamers wanting to “tap into the selection of thousands upon thousands of simple action, arcade, puzzle, word games and other offerings.”

As the iPad gains features — including a webcam and USB connections — the device “could herald an entirely new approach to game development,” Steinberg says. “In the next 12 to 18 months, if we are lucky, we’ll see some things that are truly innovative.”

阅读更多来自USA TODAY的报道